Issue 38: The Void | by Michael Nagle
"He is honest with you when you ask if he is getting tired but you understand on a deep level that he is not bothered by the call. He is bothered by the situation, but he is not bothered by you..."
The Void | by Michael Nagle
You have exactly one Witness, and you call him one night when you are deep in the Void, and you can’t remember the call because all you could really do is whimper. You whimper for what must be three hours. You keep the Witness up until 3 am his time. He is honest with you when you ask if he is getting tired but you understand on a deep level that he is not bothered by the call. He is bothered by the situation, but he is not bothered by you. He knows you need the reassurance so he tells you whenever you need to hear it.
He says if he falls asleep you can just call him back.
You know he means it…
Read more from The Void.
Michael Nagle is a queer, Sri Lankan-American writer living in his hometown of Los Angeles, where he’s undergoing treatment for metastatic colon cancer. He is deeply interested in writing as a vector for raw, messy, vulnerability that slips under our collective defenses and wakes us up to the more beautiful lives we know in our hearts is possible. And doing this with humor, joy, and wit. Portland, OR and Cambridge, MA both feel like second homes and if he had a choice he would take rebirth as a well-pampered cat.
Kirk Read is the author of How I Learned to Snap, which was an American Library Association Honor Book. He is active in the Northwest collage scene and his work was recently featured in Contemporary Collage Magazine. He is working on a novel and a book of essays about adventures in public health nursing. He lives in Portland, Oregon among cats, dahlias and whatever he and Ed drag home from the Goodwill Bins.
Issue 38 Highlights
Issue 38: Les combattants by Featured Artist Ousmane Bâ
Issue 38: dear Coral Grief by nawa angel a.h.
Issue 38: the void by Michael Nagle | Artwork by Kirk Read
Issue 38: Festival of Love by Mayur Chauhan
Issue 38: A Bridge is a Place by Marina Gross-Hoy
Issue 38: Everyday Apocalypses by Featured Writer A.B. Lim
Artists and Writers
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With galactic gratitude,
Leigh Hopkins
and the Corporeal/KHÔRA squad