TERSE – TERSE. Journal

Three Poems by John Tustin

AFTER A FIFTEEN HOUR WORKDAY Driving home I notice That the stars are green, My hands are pale blue And the streets are yellow Like that old brick road. The moon is really made of cheese. I can smell it through the fog. I get to my place, my key Melts into…
Short Story: “The Surveyor” by C.D. Frelinghuysen

On the final minutes of my sixty-fifth day away from Nantes, I found what I sought at the bottom of a gully: a pool of dirty liquid, rim ice already crusting in the dusk. With frigid and trembling hands I dragged the vial through it, then crawled back up to the phaethon, desperate for its…
TERSE. Writing Prompts: Diurnal Revival & A Dystopian Haze

Diurnal Revival The solar and lunar cycle gives life on planet earth constant movement and form. Every morning you are revived from your slumber to face a new set of events and challenges. How do you navigate? How do you cope with your 12 hour long Diurnal Revival? Be as imaginative and surreal as you…
Care in Uncertain Times Syllabus: Groundwork to New Futures

Since the dawn of the COVID-19 pandemic, I have been intrigued by the archives and online courses that have opened up to the global community free of charge. There are millions of people who want to continue to learn, and some who are forced to teach remotely during this time. One of my favorite free…
Braving the Days: If You’re Reading This… aka Tomorrow’s Magnum Opus pt. 1 by Jordannah Elizabeth

“The serpent is eating itself” – Dax Riggs I’ve been thinking about time, consciously aging and the attributes of a magnum opus. My mind is what it is. Several concepts that don’t seem to be mutually exclusive flow and roll like waves within my psyche, creating a narrative that is unique to myself. This may…
Short Story: The Race by Zoey Howell-Brown {Speculative Fiction}

My department had “no idea” of the plan at hand to exterminate us all and re-create A “new America”. The date this will go into effect states April 24, 2034, which is two weeks from today. This office space always had this dreary feeling to it, but today it’s intensified to the next phase of…
Existential Stimuli: 64 Books to Read From Our Literary {Archive}

Accessibility on all fronts has been compromised due to our current global pandemic. I don’t know how long or how many times I am going to have to write the prior sentence, but we at TERSE. are willing to stay as focused and as stimulated as possible. I’ve been reading that a lot of writers…
“In Every Creation” by Sam Jowett

a sliver of me astral infused queerness myself laid bare upon the mountains I carved the forests I etched the nebulas I painted…
“Used Planet, Slightly Worn” by Barney Sperlin

Talking to fruit wasn’t on my list. This casual walk was an after-dinner treat, strolling under the bright moon and stars, searching for owls along the cleared path in the woodlot behind my house. I moved toward a burbling-chortling sound associated with raccoon families, and dropped into a swale. On the opposite side of the…
“That Shining Moment” by Drema Deòraich

They say you don’t see the bullet. They’re wrong. The shooter pulls his trigger, time drags to a crawl. I see mine. It flies toward me like a bee to a flower. # Before, children squeal delight at the sight of the zoo across the busy public square. Teachers remind Margot for the millionth time…