Category: El Portal Web Feature
-
Supreme Decisions
Supreme Decisions –Jim Piatt Promises, discarded, broken, lie beside other dusty laws of the past, trampled under the grime of ideology: Hopes, shattered lives thrown into the pit of Indifference born of greed…ignorance, untried principles: Compassion wilting in the darkness of shattered dreams, kindness melted into the fiscal indifference of our time, all under the…
-
THE TRUMPETER
July Web Feature THE TRUMPETER –John Grey No one noticed his brown eyes, receding hairline, or the goatee poking out of his chin. He was only ever the trumpet he played. On stage, that was understandable. His mouth was wide open and brass. His fingers, valve slides and buttons. But, even on the street, he…
-
The Ping Not Taken
May Web Feature The Ping Not Taken – Storey Clayton In 1998, the year I graduated high school, Gwyneth Paltrow starred in a movie called “Sliding Doors.” The basic premise of the film was to illustrate the momentous differences in one’s life that can hinge on a comparatively small matter of timing: e.g., making…
-
poems by Bridget Richardson
Cupide and his lyste of arwes or The path to my degree My first love forgot to love me back so I buried him and found another. My second love imagined he were a Russian spy – he faked his death. In good fashion, I pretended to mourn and moved on before he could resurface.…
-
Highway 50
March Web Feature Highway 50 – Ahsha M. Vigil The payphone beeps loudly, the operator’s monotone voice pours through the earpiece. “Please deposit one nickel for five more minutes. You have thirty seconds before I must disconnect the call.” The hitchhiker looks for another nickel in his empty pockets. The phone goes silent and beeps…
-
Amazonians Have a Hundred Words for Green
February Web Feature INFINITE KARMIC LORE from Amazonians Have a Hundred Words for Green by Gerard Sarnat Here we are living in bliss on the “D” type exact epicenter of the San Andreas Fault’s apocalyptic Richter earthquake risk. Redwoods almost as ancient as the ancientest dinosaur from the Triassic era nearly a quarter of a…
-
Your Pet Turtle
January Web Feature Your Pet Turtle –William Doreski We agree that nothing is absolute, not the dark of closets, not clock-faces, not the stink of cooking fat. But we disagree on the exceptions. You place your plastic crucifix on the wall and claim that it represents the ultimate. I prop Wallace Stevens’ Collected Poems against…
-
Poems by Simon Perchik
December Web Feature by Simon Perchik * You feed these birds at night the way every feather they use comes from a quarry where the air darkens with each landing –it’s Tuesday and you still have not forgotten their return for seeds, endlessly weeping for a missing child a brother, mother though their eyes are…
-
Poetry Throw Back: Steve Bellin-Oka
A former guest poet/mentor turned Artist-in-Residence, Steve Bellin-Oka, shared the following piece with El Portal on November 11, 2016. We always knew he was bound for great things and are deeply honored to say, with a full heart, “we knew him when.” Still Life with the Plague of Darkness —…
-
Welcome Back!
School is back in session at Eastern New Mexico University and the Fall 2015 issue is well underway, which means El Portal is now accepting submissions for its Spring 2016 edition. Prose, poetry, flash fiction, photography, and art are welcome internationally! Deadline October 31st. For Terms of Submission: Click Here For Submission Guidelines: Click Here…
-
An Interview with El Portal’s Incoming Editor: Kayleen Burdine [by Alexandra Itzi]
A native of Carlsbad, New Mexico, Kayleen Burdine will be assuming editorship of El Portal in August 2015. After graduating with a Bachelors of Arts in English from Eastern New Mexico University this May, she will be entering the Graduate Program in English at ENMU in the fall semester of 2015. Although Burdine will be…
-
El Portal Seeking Submissions for Fall 2015 Issue
El Portal is currently seeking submissions for its Fall 2015 issue. The deadline for Fall 2015 submissions is 31 March 2015. If you have any questions about submitting to El Portal, please feel free to drop us a line at el.portal@enmu.edu. For submission guidelines and official rules, please visit our official Guidelines and Terms of…
-
Call for Submissions (El Portal, Fall 2015)
El Portal is currently seeking submissions for its Fall 2015 issue. If you have any questions about submitting to El Portal, please feel free to drop us a line at el.portal@enmu.edu. For submission guidelines and official rules, please visit our official Guidelines and Terms of Submission pages for more information. Also, be sure to check…
-
The Well by Jenni Baros (Web Feature)
“Well’s dry again,” Travis says. He kicks the front door shut against the gnawing cold. His arms are full of damp pinon for the fire. The tang of manure and fresh hay follows him in. “It’s winter,” I say. My fingers are numb from chasing dishes around in a sink full of suds. I’ve been…
-
Marlboro Marlboro (Poem by Alexandra Itzi)
Marlboro Marlboro Where are you hiding tonight my curled fingers Search out feeling like briny brackish seaweed The nightstand with its crumpled dollar bill the Offering Pay the tithe Urging urging the tickle in the back of my throat like too much Too much candy maybe how it was growing up the corner store Those…
-
ItNothing (Poem by Alexandra Itzi)
“No.” “But I—“ “I said no.” There was a slam, a bang, and then a sigh. That’s how the story started, and also how it ended. She looked down at his body, at the crooked bend of his neck. She peeked into the crater of flesh, at the bored-out hole in his skull.…
-
Silencing Rivers by Jade Smith
I reached down to the bottom of the back bar. I poured another tequila shot and slid it down the crumbling lacquer to Marcos. He didn’t look down as he caught it. He had been sitting there the entire night watching me tend. I wiped the tables down and I could feel his body shift…
El Portal Literary Journal 