•   CONTENTS                                                                 Before Paphos
                          Women Are Ugly
           Art Gallery                                                       by Loretta Casteen
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                          By Eliot Fintushel
           Articles                                                          8 January 2007
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                          21 June 2004
           Columns                                                           It starts again. The baby
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                                                                             begins to cough and choke.
                          "We suffer insofar as we are incomplete."
           Fiction
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                                                                             Locked Doors
                          --Spinoza
           Poetry
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                                                                             by Stephanie Burgis
                          Women are so ugly. It scares you. You
           Reviews
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                          want to love them, and then you see their          1 January 2007
           Archives
       o                  teeth. You see how their skin bunches and
                                                                             You can never let anyone
                          sags. You want to run away. They secrete
•   ABOUT US                                                                 suspect, his mother told
                          repulsive fluids. They conceal their ugliness
                                                                             him. That was the first rule
                          with tinctures and creams. They have
           Staff
       o
                                                                             she taught him, and the last,
                          instruments to pluck and mold their ugly
                                                                             before she left him here
           Guidelines     parts. Sometimes they sneak off by
       o
                                                                             alone with It.
                          themselves. Powder rooms. If for some in
           Contact
       o                  their youth the ugliness is hidden, it is a case
                                                                             Heroic Measures
                          of leaves strewn over compost: soon the
           Awards
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                          wind will scatter them, and the stink will rise.   by Matthew Johnson
           Banners
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                          I just narrowly escaped a close relationship       18 December 2006
                          with a woman. That thing happened where,
•   SUPPORT US
                          after a time of being bumfuzzled by lust, IPale as he was, it was hard
      o Donate            began to see her. Only thing. This one didn't
                                                                     to believe he would never
                          take it so well. Stabbed me with a scissors.
                                                                     rise from this bed. Even in
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      o                   "We'll see who's ugly."                    the darkest times, she had
                                                                     never really feared for him;
      o Merchandise I didn't want to hurt her, so I ran. The cut
                                                                     he had always been strong,
                    wasn't bad, though it could have been. Yes, I so strong.
•   COMMUNITY
                    can bleed. I can die. Took a little divot from
                    the hollow of my shoulder. I shudder to think. Love Among the Talus
      o Forum
                    But I'm okay. Rubbing alcohol and a couple
                                                                     by Elizabeth Bear
      o Readers'    of Band-Aids.
        Choice
                    How did I get involved. They are beautiful at 11 December 2006
                    first. I saw her hanging up clothes on a line in
                                                                     Nilufer raised her eyes to
                    the yard behind the empty house next door.
                                                                     his. It was not what women
                    (Empty, I'd thought it was.) Pulley,
                                                                     did to men, but she was a
                    clothesline, basket of wet things.
                                                                     princess, and he was only a
                    Old-fashioned, yes? In the sun. Under a blue
                                                                     bandit. "I want to be a
                    sky. The glint of faraway grass, knolls like
                                                                     Witch," she said. "A Witch
                    curves on a woman's flank, smell of birds'
                                                                     and not a Queen. I wish to
                    wings and sunlight: a day like that, your
                                                                     be not loved, but wise. Tell
                    senses got mixed up. In all that, we're the
                                                                     your bandit lord, if he can
                    same as you. They don't tell you that.
                                                                     give me that, I might accept
                                                                     his gift."
                    One breath and you knew the season. It
                    swelled her sheets, her blouses. Arms
                                                                     Archived Fiction Dating
                    swathed for a moment in blowing fabric.
                                                                     back to 9/1/00
                    Mouthful of clothespins. She stood on
                    tiptoes, the wind took her skirt, and I saw the
                    sweet arcs of her calves.