If You Can(’t) Take the Heat, Get Out of the Sit-In
Suzanne Marie Hopcroft

Like baseboards for the
windows, she tells
me. Like basements for
our eyes and ears, I
think. Lately

I can’t find the words to
explain why ice
cream melts in the
broiler, let
alone how fast
explosives on a
mountain bridge the
continental
divide. She

wants march to be
our fall, thinks
a rosy poster-girl all
gloss, muscle and
rivets will prove
we can. I think I
just want this canned
soup to be my
consciousness, ticket
to ride into normal, soak
up that sunset green
without a
twitch. It’s

called
defection, I
heard, but
hearing doesn’t
make it
snow.

SUZANNE MARIE HOPCROFT is a PhD student in Comparative Literature and writes from New York City. Her work has appeared or been selected to appear in journals including PANK, > kill author, Monkeybicycle, elimae, and Everyday Genius. Suzanne teaches developmental reading at a community college in the Bronx and has written fiction reviews for magazines such as The Literary Review and World Literature Today. She also makes a mean lasagna.

:: ABOUT :: ISSUES :: SUBMISSIONS :: NEWS ::

ISSUE :: 4 ::

Collin Blair Grabarek ::	Speak One Way
Karen Greenbaum-Maya ::	Raksasa: The Deer-Pig
Amanda Ackerman ::	Human Time: Poem Eight, Self-Pity
Kyle Hemmings ::	Miss tHing, I Think I Love You
Tammy Ho Lai-Ming ::	How Can You Understand?
Suzanne Marie Hopcroft ::	If You Can(’t) Take the Heat, Get Out of the Sit-In
	Rocket Man
Peter Schwartz ::	Uncle Shorty
Davy Carren ::	Picture of a Postcard
Misti Rainwater-Lites ::	Primordial Pudding
F.J. Bergmann ::	Instant Affirmative
Matthew Burnside ::	YUL BRYNNER DOESN’T GIVE A MOTHERFUCK
	NO ORGASM WILL EVER MAKE ME FEEL THE WAY MORGAN FREEMAN'S VOICE SOUNDS
	TRAPPED IN GARY BUSEY'S HOUSE, ONE TEXT LEFT
Matt Robinson ::	The Oppressionist
Nick Narbutas ::	Enchanted, I’m Sure
Eleanore Leonne Bennet ::	Two photographs
Alexis Pope ::	Tired, Hungry, Dirty
Meghan Lamb ::	It’s A Party!

Homage to the Strange Spirits

Kathy Acker ::

The Killers