Issue 040: May 2020 Archives - Wrath-Bearing Tree

In the first weeks of lockdown, I paced my two-room Harlem apartment, feeling trapped while an unpredictable threat l…

The following short story is based on the myth “Ceyx and Alceone,” as recounted in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Cy busied hi…

The following excerpt of The Knockout Queen by Rufi Thorpe is reprinted with permission by A.A. Knopf. When I was ele…

In high school, I was invisible–acne and braces, last year’s wardrobe. I didn’t have close friends. My grades w…

“It is as reasonable to represent one kind of imprisonment by another as it is to represent anything that really exis…

1. They say Stop-and-friskIs a brief and non-intrusive stop of a suspect.Which can be deadly in America where Statist…

All beings in this world, all bodies must break up: Even the Teacher, peerless in the human world. The mighty Lord an…

A portion of this essay was originally published in Cobalt Review. It came by helicopter twice a week, if weather and…

“Who deserves anything?” asks Lorrie Ann, one of the protagonists of Rufi Thorpe’s first novel, The Girls from Corona…

Paris sirensPewter skyThe white laceOf a dogwood boughAt midnight Reach upClutch and huffHungry before bedFor the swe…