Jose Hernandez Diaz
THE MAN AND THE ANTLERS
A man picked wild berries in the forest, ate them, and suddenly grew antlers. He was shocked. He ran around in circles, Why? Why? Then he saw a small creek. He looked into the water; he saw his antlers in the reflection, strong and sharp. Why me? He said. Why me? Then a bear approached him. He was startled for a moment, but then charged at the bear with force.
JOSE HERNANDEZ DIAZ is a 2017 NEA Poetry Fellow. His work appears in The Best American Nonrequired Reading, Green Mountains Review, Huizache, The Journal, Los Angeles Review, New American Writing, The Progressive, and Witness. He has served as an editor for Floricanto Press and Lunch Ticket.
ISSUE FIVE features fiction by Olivia Clare, Aaron Hamburger, Maria Kuznetsova, Dan Pope, Stephanie Reents, and Terese Svoboda; creative nonfiction by Lesley Jenike, Philip Metres, and JoAnna Novak; film writing by Adam Golaski; poetry by Cynthia Arrieu-King, Catherine Barnett, Lillian-Yvonne Bertram, Malachi Black, Miranda Field, Janice N. Harrington, Sophie Klahr, JoAnna Klink, Elizabeth Robinson, Maggie Smith, Rebecca Wolff, and Robert Wrigley; and an interview with Olivia Clare.