Excerpts

The following are excerpts from previously published volumes of The Chaffey Review.

VOLUME 3

His Love: Eric Odegaard
His faults are what she loves,
above perhaps all else. They are what
she comes back to like Pavlov’s dogs,
salivating at the prospect of something
to consume.

I. Time Travel or: How to Drink Whiskey: Joshua L’Heureux
Open the bottle.
Pour.
Sip.
Digging through time capsule cardboard boxes with a glass of whiskey tends to look tragic. Chasing the years I couldn’t spend with her, pathetic. A whole life ahead of me and I just drink and think backwards.
The house on the lake keeps me warm with what dry wood I could find. White boxes cover the brown shag carpeting making what was once secret a spectacle for anyone who walks through the door. Pictures, letters to me and ones never delivered, one dried stale brown nostalgic corsage, a varsity letter that never needed a jacket, and one senior yearbook are all I have. When I think about all of this, how it all survived, I drink a little bit more.
I pick up a picture.
My first valentine.
Sip.
She sits on the concrete and brick ledge.

Just Walking: Eric Odegaard
The mountains in the distance quiver,
but they don not quiver, blue, but they are not
blue. His bones almost buckle,
but he has no bones, he breathes hard,
and all there is, is breath.

Also featuring a short story by David Foster Wallace

60 Miles Inland: Ryan Bartlett
My majesty
of mouthless deliverance
follows me home.
She is not female.
She does not know
My newest name.
I wrote her this little note
While listening
To the soundless roar
Of San Timoteo
Of my Benjamin’s crooked little laugh
Of my Angela’s burrowing lips.