ISSUE FIVE

I could, even now, go down to the water

Even from this distance I could go out
the door it would bang shut and crumble

Investigation of the Spectacle

Our mission is not a drunken pub-crawl, per se, but examination of all possibilities…

Lavandula

Listen to me: I know
the winter gloom in
mid-summer…

Aging Punks

Every so often, they add a tattoo
in honor of some long-forgotten love.

Fallout Shelter

I imagined a cascade of slow death for all / that mattered…

Reconnaissance

another self emerges between assignments, to follow the dog into winter dusk and watch the snow fall. Not sociable, but perceiving

Forest Walk on a Friday

Every time I come to the forest, it’s different, but so am I.

Wilderness

The land here is scarred and wrinkled.

Bisect

Bisect by Amanda Yskamp This image is featured as the cover of Abandon Journal, issue…

The Kotel in Jerusalem is Filled with Cracks

We found in his suitcase T-shirts, his siddur, gifts he bought for his grandchildren…

Submission

Directly after the arrival of the Armada, this model made sense, as the gap between Unthulanian and Human cultures prevented a commensurable exchange of practices…

Sisters of the Divine Apparatus

The day does not conclude with the gentle exhale of the earth, but with Mother Superior flipping the hourglass over, again.

Laika Came Home

When Laika the space dog comes back, bulleted to earth in a tiny white escape pod that dissolves upon opening, nobody can believe it.

Finding My Fix

I slumped in front of a massive desk, a passive patient corroded with failure and dread.

Behind This Fence in Future Tense

My new neighbor is making a violin from a cigar box. He got the cigar box from a guard. The guard, presumably, got it from outside the Fence.

A note on the artwork in this issue: Other than the cover, all of the images in Issue #5 of Abandon Journal were created by Phillip Scott Mandel using AI. The cover is “Bisect” by Amanda Yskamp.