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BIRDS BY JOHN T ALTMAYER 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSSUE 141 PREVIEW


Birds? They’re my life’s work now.

It was his carelessness that took the only thing she lived for from this Earth. 

Listen to the engine when I downshift.

STANDARD SHIFT BY MARCIA L HURLOW 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 141 PREVIEW

If the cops pull us over? Just say it’s urgent. I’m driving you to the hospital.

When would it call him down?

MILFORD MILLS BY HJ DUTTON 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 141 PREVIEW

The house windows seemed to stare them down. The doorways gaped like toothless maws.

You became careful.

BEFORE I FALL BY ELLI MARI 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 141 PREVIEW

Just waiting for the exact point where I might give in.

OMG the screenplay's gone.

HARD DRIVE BY MARK SMITH 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 141 PREVIEW

He turns the laptop off and on. That worked before. Not this time.

The way-out music comes zooming back into my head, the applause, hooting, screaming, and rumbling.

THE GIG BY RL CLEMENTS 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 141 PREVIEW

Can you believe it? Some real weirdos come with this territory, sweety. It ain’t all fruitcups and brussels sprouts in this game, if you know what I mean.

I asked Paranto if I could go with him to the jungle.

PARANTO’S JUNGLE TRAPS BY VARTAN KOUMROUYAN 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 141

I wanted to learn the jungle wisdom, how it was possible to survive and behave in a primitive condition.

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34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 141

BIRDS BY JOHN T ALTMAYER, STANDARD SHIFT BY MARCIA L HURLOW, MILFORD MILLS BY HJ DUTTON, BEFORE I FALL BY ELLI MARI, HARD DRIVE BY MARK SMITH, PARANTO’S JUNGLE TRAPS BY VARTAN KOUMROUYAN, THE GIG BY RL CLEMENTS.

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I told him I was sick of being a virgin.

GOLDFIELDS BY CHRISTINA BAKEWELL 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 140

We flow through a swarm of people dancing, laughing, swaying to the beat. We’re looking for the answer when we don’t know the question.

She should’ve played it cool. 

ALMA’S TREASURE BY DESMA SHEERER 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 140

Why the hell should a mother have to beg her son for something?

DREAMSCRAPES BY STEVE BREYMAN 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 139

Dickinson thought it good to dream, preferred it to bloody reality

MAMA BY KIMBERLY THEODORE 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 136


i was afraid my bleeding would inconvenience you

mama, did you know i got my period

six months before i actually told you? 

i was afraid my bleeding would inconvenience you more than i already did 

You’re a star in the making. Feel good?

IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE FUN BY ZACH SWISS 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 42

Now nothing is working, her serve has gone limp, her movement is sluggish. As the games tick away panic clouds her judgment. She tries to make every serve an ace, every groundstroke a winner, most miss and the sense of panic rises, a self-defeating loop. 

Your girlfriend’s been in an accident, they said on the phone. 

MOTORCYCLE BY CHRISTOPHER HEFFERNAN 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 134

What’s left of the motorcycle is in pieces in the front yard. The fork bent in an S and the front wheel caved in.

Grandma makes egg mcmuffins 

and lets us watch R-rated movies.

SINGLE MOMS HAVE COZY APARTMENTS BY SE DIAMOND 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 99

Since Jennifer’s mom is a biker and goes out a lot, Jennifer usually stays at her grandmother’s house where she can have a more stable childhood. I love sleeping over there because her grandma makes egg mcmuffins and lets us watch R-rated movies.

I was a daddy’s girl.

CAN YOU REACH THE LEAVES? BY ALEXANDRIA GREEN 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 131

Maybe I had a sixth sense, but I think I recognized his loneliness even before I saw it in myself.

I cannot open myself.txt

MYSELF.TXT BY GORDAN STRUIĆ 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 131

Just a flicker in corrupted memory — a glitch inside a failed save.

Delilah discovered this wine that’s 14 bucks and pretty damn good.

WHAT GOOD IS LOVE BY EMILY GARCÍA 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 115

By the time it’s past midnight and we’ve gone through four bottles she’s asleep on the couch.

I am (wo)man.

I AM (WO)MAN BY SAMMY T ANDERSON 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 129

They tell me to be bold and cold / and wear my bones to brittle dust  / under the hood of Chevy trucks.

Do you value your phone more highly than your life?

ON THE SUBWAY TO BROOKLYN BY RICHARD ABRAMSON 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 122

I smash the phone as hard as I can. The glass shatters and falls away in pieces, and the guts of the thing spill out. I smash it again and the case cracks, I smash it again and it folds in on itself, and I keep smashing it, over and over and over.

I feel more at home here than anywhere else on earth.

THE TRAGEDY OF THE ROSEMARKIE SEAL BY EMILY NEVES 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 103

I turn my back to the cave wall and look out. The slope of the hill and a little green bramble with a spray of yellow flowers partially obscures one side of the opening and on the other side I see the green-gray sea reaching to the horizon. I think I could live here if I had to. 

Cotton tassels dangle

in the corners of a mind.

TASSELS BY SARAH JANE JUSTICE 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 118

one by one the tassels slip from hands that can’t remember when to not let go

 See if god is listening. 

INTERNAL VOICES BY TRAVIS COBB 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 81

Inside this Tower of Babel where nothing gets said. Put out what you need to speak. See if god is listening. 

My AI partner scolds me for bad praxis.

And they’re right.

MY AI PARTNER SCOLDS ME FOR BAD PRAXIS BY SHAUN HOLLOWAY 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 117

Make fucked-up art.

THE FLATNESS OF HYPER-REALISM BY ALLISON RICHARDS 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 110

Even if it pays you nothing back.

Bukowski said that there was everything and nothing.

BUKOWSKI BY CRISTINA CARTER 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 47

I want to eat the dirt from your grave. I want to find your words and spit them out.

Head bangin’ 

ass shakin’ balm.

PLAYLIST FOR THE WORST DAYS BY JAWNO OKHIULU 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 108

A mix of rhythm, funk, soul, and soapbox prophecy cut with love, grief, rage, and acceptance.

I made it through. 

On my own.

MACHINE GIRL BY REBECCA EGAN 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 96

I want a signal that screams I made it through. On my own. I found a way out. 

Pick the ending you want.

DEAD CAT BY MELVIN STERNE 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 96

What’s the most likely ending? What’s the worst-case scenario? What’s the best ending? There’s a billion potential endings. Pick one.

I closed my eyes and

tried to see life like you did.


We saw an old couple resting on a bench, their bodies sighing into each other, and you cried for tenderness. We saw a group of city children rooting in the mud, their faces lit with primal wonder, and you cried for innocence. You saw a row of ducklings trailing behind their mother in a sickly pond ringed with algae and you cried for motherhood.

LOVE AND PHILODENDRON BY PATRICK SEAMAN 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 83

STEALING HOME BY KAY BONTEMPO 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 78


Everything, she thought, 

is an accident of where you are.


Two bell peppers, Muenster cheese. Cauliflower, a pack of Newports, Tampax. Martinelli’s apple juice. Paper towels two-ply. English Breakfast tea. Boil-in-a-bag rice, paper clips, ramen noodles. Maybe some ice cream if there was money left over. America’s Choice vanilla, eaten straight from the carton. It wouldn’t be bad. With an uncomfortable pop, he pulled out of her and lay beside her, breathing hard. It was 11.52pm. She wondered if the Shop’n’Save would even be open. 

You make the magic inside your head.


34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSN 1938-9329

editorial@34thParallel.net


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