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trampset,
a literary journal
Inventory before Prayer
by Joseph Randolph...He looks tired but precise, like an idea that survived its author. Somewhere behind the interstate’s drone, a train sounds — a single, absolute note — and for a moment he thinks of his mother’s voice calling him home, decades gone. The overlap is unbearable.
Dec 5, 20253 min read
I'll Be Right Back
by Mallory Smart...On Friday, the company schedules this “optional” team building thing called SURVIVING THE GRIND: A SLASHER-BASED APPROACH TO CORPORATE COHESION.
HR departments love acting like Buzzfeed on steroids. Pretending structure is a personality trait.
Dec 5, 20256 min read
Invitation to an Execution
by Elizabeth J. Wenger...Oh, Amelia, the love of my life who did not love me. There is no use asking what she saw in Gregory. Love, like murder, has its own incomprehensible laws.
Dec 5, 20258 min read
Little Helpers
by L. Soviero...How when he left us, his body cookie-cut the light from the doorway and he laid a ribbon of finger on his lips, his eyes bright with their own celebration.
Dec 5, 20252 min read
In Praise of the Non-Linear
by Tyler Dempsey...If I cared about linear progress, I would’ve never gotten picked up by a plane hitchhiking.
Had I taken my friend’s offer to drive me from Anchorage to Denali in early-May of 2017, after arriving in the 49th State from a winter in Missoula, MT, I wouldn’t remember a single damn thing of that trip today.
Dec 5, 202512 min read
Wound
by Abhinav...That was the day childhood ended. Time no longer a yard but a funnel tilted downhill and revenge suddenly a possibility, not just desire. I knew I could do it. She saw it in my eyes. She knew I could do it.
Oct 31, 20254 min read
The Carwash Essay
by M.M. Kaufman...There is as likely a chance as not that under those giant wipe-o-matic’s you side-step into another reality. Maybe in this one you love yourself. At least in the reality that brought you here, you showed up for yourself. That’s a start.
Oct 30, 20257 min read
Glass Birds Annex
by Sacha Bissonnette...My girlfriend and I were buying birdseed for the feeder on the back porch, because sometimes, the yellow finches, the little ones, get so close you can wrap your hands so gently around them. And they’re precious like glass but soft and also warm.
Sep 26, 20254 min read
You Can Be Something Different Today You Say to Yourself Again
by Jeffrey Hermann...You can squeeze a human brain into the same container, she added, but you won’t see anything remarkable. Now you’re looking into a mirror. Lay down your weapons and kill an idea of yourself up close. Face to face. Stop practicing taxidermy.
Dec 5, 20251 min read
Sangre De Cristo (Haibun)
by Lucia Lu...In the rheumy distance, a muzzy landform pulses at the edges. I don’t know that we are waiting for anything to happen. The snakegrass, sagebrush, and I. So the sun rises.
Dec 5, 20251 min read
Dear Little Mortuary
by Elisa Luna Ady...We held the light at the wrong slant, the cousins and I, like forgetting to floss our teeth or close the faucet. Someone dear to us had gone. It was the Anthropocene. A bit of light went a long way in Southern California.
Oct 30, 20252 min read
A Writer’s Guide on Rage, Reflection, and Retribution
by Mandira Pattnaik...I understand that there is an ethic of anger — a secret code. It frequently slides into unreasonableness, and one may sometimes misdiagnose the source. It is not without peril to play with the “fire” within
Nov 13, 20256 min read
Three poems on unbelief
by Paul Chuks...I enjoy pretending,
Like when I’m at the job and
My boss bands with me for
A hug. I smile emphasizing
I like my pay. That way, lord,
I want to pretend You exist.
Nov 8, 20252 min read
Vocab Glow‑Up: English’s Newest Words Buzzing in my Bonnet
by Mandira Pattnaik...Like all wordsmiths, I’ve built forests from alphabets. Like all forest dwellers, I’ve been a gatherer all my life.
Sep 5, 20253 min read
Little Dead Thing: Poems and Commentary
by Paul Chuks...This is my first poem post-depression. My therapist is not sure I’m well because I tell her the world is still grey. Yesterday, I walked past a knife without the thought of blood.
Aug 26, 20253 min read
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