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    • Our Theseus by Nathan Jefferson
      Last week he was a dishwasher who his coworkers called Ricky. Today he’s a day laborer named Eddie, clearing a pair of fallen trees off a new build’s lawn and fixing up a large garden. Rotting plank ripped out, new plank inserted.
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We Can Learn From This, You Know by Jacob Nantz

September 6, 2020
Reading Time: 1 Minutes
We should have seen the signs, 
even as kids. I remember a night, 
like so many nights. The moon split 
open the sky, its silver light bursting 
through a crescent gash & hanging 
over us. You, just a child, tagged along. 
My friends & I, abusing an evening’s 
freedom, saw streetlamps & houses, 
every stagnant thing appear to ripple 
like a spoon’s guts over a flame’s heat.
You know what I mean. We all have vices, 
& who’s to say whose are worse if we’re 
all buried in the end? There is no use 
in weighing afflictions. Any weight 
so heavy should be shed. To survive 
ourselves is to level the faults where 
we often trip. We made a mess that night, 
like so many nights. The black sky held 
its breath, took a slow turn to blue as we 
hurried to hide our secrets. The moon’s 
sharp edges blurred into their new backdrop 
as if to warn us: the night is not over; time is 
not up but will be soon. It urged: collect the litter
together. See how your shadows, being cast across 
the lawn, resemble each other, how they grow 
when merged & tower into morning.
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Poetry

Five South
Five South is a literary journal that publishes poetry, fiction, and non-fiction.

  • Poetry

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