The wind wreaks havoc in the forest The green forest trees swayed with the force of the wind as it whistled through their branches, tearing leaves from tender twigs. “The spirits are fighting again!” the wind shouted, as he grabbed at the earth- brown branches and grass-green leaves. “My children, my children,” wept the wild willow, reaching after her leaves. The wind snapped the most tender twigs, bellowing, “Beware! The spirits are fighting again!” “My hands, my hands,” creaked the snow-white birch as she watched her tender twigs whirl in the wind. “Look out, the spirits are fighting again!” the wind roared. Twister “My brothers, my brothers,” the reeds whispered by the battered swamp as they bent in the gusts. The wind darted away in disgust, and started to torment other forests. Weeping, the willow examined her battered branches and counted the missing leaves. Straightening, the birch looked at her remaining hands, sobbing to see the delicate fingers so broken. The reeds cried softly for their brothers, the plants the wind had buried and overwhelmed in mud.
September/October 2024
Twister
Acrylic
Editor’s Note
In this issue, we greet my favorite season, fall, which holds within it many moments to celebrate and reflect. It’s a season of transition, as the leaves change color and the wind moves us from summer toward winter—as reflected in our first two pieces, a very short fiction piece called “The Wind” and a play entitled The Storm. It’s also back-to-school time, and we have two funny poems about that. Oct. 14 is Indigenous Peoples’ Day, and we include two paintings by Leticia Cheng in celebration And, of course, October means Halloween, and the weeks leading up to it are sometimes called “spooky season.” If you like scary stories, this is your time! We end this issue with a truly chilling story by Anushka Trivedi called “Tired Wounds.” In this piece, the author turns an ordinary object—you’ll have to read it to find out what!—into something terrifying. I challenge you to write a story featuring an ordinary object or situation that somehow becomes scary. Boo!
