Vagabond City Literary Journal

21/08/2024

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20/08/2024

From the Archives: THE SAD HISTORY OF BUTTERFLIES by Jonathan Endurance from Issue 40

—after Chinua Ezenwa-Ohaeto: “A House so Cramped God Could Barely Squeeze In” the sound of clattering metals                      …

15/08/2024

Work we ❤

The truth is that I didn’t cry when you died. I walked upstairs and watched cartoons until I was told to help take your body  down the hill where the house sat, and to the black  van that waited for you at the bottom. I don’t know how old  I was. I regret that silence. 

13/08/2024

From the Archives: SANTA CRUZ FOREVER by Chestina Craig from Issue 40

I blame every Santa Cruz summer for every ounce of invincibility I’ve felt, if you can come out of the thaw still deer spry, if you can swallow the sun like those born here, you can do anything und…

12/08/2024

Now Read This | July 2024

Highlighting recently released and forthcoming works by marginalized creators S*x Goblin by Lauren Cook As if hauled up squirming from the bowels of the internet, S*x Goblin metabolizes s*x writing…

09/08/2024

An Interview with Lucy Liu

This month’s artist, Lucy Liu, captures a tender and powerful moment between a mother and daughter with her piece, Holding On. Liu shares her artistic journey and gives us insight a…

08/08/2024

Work we ❤

by Jared Beloff

06/08/2024

From the Archives: CATCH AND RELEASE by Mike Chin from Issue 40

When I was still a girl, the boys asked when I’d stop believing in magic. They might ask you one day, too and you’ll have your own words, your own beliefs, your own magic. So all I ask is that you …

05/08/2024

In Review: Women Collapse into / Better, Brighter Artists by Iva Moore

“Lived and died a fat seven inches from your closet / toe. The gray heads of rainwater blown in. I / fought my own omens, their circles” (Moore 1). And so begins Iva Moore’s debut chapbook, Women C…

02/08/2024

New fiction from Issue 97: Fairy Tale by Chris Klassen

Once upon a time there was a great and powerful king. When he first assumed control of the kingdom, after his father the previous king passed away, life for the people wasn’t so good. They we…

01/08/2024

Work we ❤

prose poetry

30/07/2024

From the Archives: GLORIA IN EXCELSIS D**E by Levi Cain from Issue 40

i. will god let me be a conduit going anywhere i can have you, into elysian fields where i do begin an eager pilgrimage to where your thighs have already started kissing, where i do place my ear to…

29/07/2024

New CNF from Issue 97: Walk On By by M. Woods

(content warning: mental illness, su***de, body horror) The first track of Isaac Hayes’s Hot Buttered Soul plays in the background. “Walk on By” is a cover song; subsequently it has been sampled re…

26/07/2024

New poem from Issue 97: Where We Find Ourselves by Anthony Imm

Hair kept unkempt to flow in the       wind. Clouds reign over the sea by this road. Tires sear the pavement       with ou…

25/07/2024

Work we ❤

23/07/2024

From the Archives: ON THE LAST WEDNESDAY by A.M. Brant from Issue 40

I will come hard On the couch Tell me you like it deep That is it for me This salt ache I can hold you in my mouth For the rest of my life if I want to Feel the pressure release quiet Night re…

22/07/2024

New poem from Issue 97: appalachia ending by Megan Busbice

on our last day of happiness she drove me to the Tennessee borderfists clenched on the wheel through the crowded interstate turnsbefore tumbling into the never-far-away fringes of nowhere, forestbr…

19/07/2024

New poem from Issue 97: on unlearning: an abecedarian by Rosie Hong

after Eleanor Wikstrom & while writing this, mā,      i am still learning how your absencebites my body bare under      yellowed street la…

18/07/2024

Work we ❤

by Farah Barqawi, trans. Sara Elkamel

16/07/2024

From the Archives: THEY SAY THE IDEAL MEXICAN HOUSE CONSISTS OF FOUR FLOORS: ONE FOR EACH GENERATION by j. taylor bell from Issue 40

in cristian’s house there was always clamor the type of place where no deafness of money existed or silence of seclusion like the ocean’s depths and oftentimes we’d sneak up to th…

12/07/2024

Poetry + An Interview with Ambyunderock

Sky Rays Color splash,Blue, magenta, pink. a dash,Every day above a painting in the sky, color mish-mash. Clouds cover,We wonder.Uncover. Vibrant everyday. Sunbeam rays.Even if unseen we know they …

11/07/2024

Work we ❤

All the bodies of water below us are shining circles. They look up at me, like eyes.

09/07/2024

From the Archives: THE LITTLE ORANGE DUCK by Cat Wei from Issue 40

Somewhere on the blue felted seat of the S7 line I had lost it. The little orange duck. It was a wind-up toy my father had bought me on a business trip just a few weeks ago. It fit perfectly in the…

08/07/2024

In Review: Synthetic Jungle by Michael Chang

If I had to describe Michael Chang’s Synthetic Jungle, I might point to the opening line of”白球鞋 WHITE TENNIS SHOES,” “‘poetry of the everyday’ means boring poetry.& #82…

05/07/2024

New fiction from Issue 96: Ossuary by Abigail Chang

I live in a temple, and you live in a house. When you visit me, you run slender fingers across my shrine. I don’t know how to respond to this. I’ve been alone for three hundred years and I’m dusty …

04/07/2024

Work we ❤

Poet [sarah] Cavar's () "Every Trans Su***de Is State Sanctioned Murder" is a stunning reflection on transition and the ongoing structural and interpersonal violence against q***r people. [Content warning: mentions of su***de and s*xual assault throughout.]

01/07/2024

New poem from Issue 96: nine hundred and twenty-six days of honeysuckle, rosemary, and thyme by Serah Wolfe

flowers froth-blooming:carmine and daffodil, orchid and violetgreen glimmering alien iridescenceautumn winding throughthe karmic wheel, edifice of lifestraddling life, the earthbleeding earth, brie…

28/06/2024

New poem from Issue 96: The Outline of a Dead Body at a Crime Scene by Swetha Berana

We hurt people that love usLove people that hurt usWe say we want to date our best friendAnd end up dating someone we are afraid our friends will hateI think I can collapse everything to rules and …