The Diamond Line

The University of Arkansas Undergraduate Literary Magazine

Poetry

Visual Art

Prose

witching hour at the supermarket by Verna Corinne Bryan

behold! the beauty of fluorescent light in the dead of night. 

this place is a refuge of restless evenings, 

this fortress in all its sterile beauty, this shining beast of modernity…

What Stage of Grief by Miceala Morano

Gasolines a body into flame with its tears?

Sends birds flying into windows, slick red feathers

rust-burnished in the light? I made this torch of me…

What Source of Meaning? by Dakota Palmer

Memories, when a colorless, yet white, void persists timelessly.

When the Neural Pathways unravel, do they unravel?

Or do I force it into a type of eternal termination?

Before Memories, when two children ungracefully frolic after fireflies…

Quarantine by Macie Hickman

My bald-headed father

wears a pink wig

 

His karaoke mic screams

apple bottom jeans…

Once Life by Brittaney Mann

I stared into the glass eyes

of a stiff face drooping

with the moment it realized

the admiration of mishappen circles

lasts in the unstitchable…

Must Be Fire by Nico Brito-Harp

my mother always held me in the palm of her hands

like water cascading down the mountain to reach its destination,

to reach the spring, to reach the levee, 

to reach the purity you could only find in reflections…

Mohawk by David Hays Denney

My steamboat of a vehicle crumbled around a street corner, threaded into a mosaic 

by the summer sunlight seeping through the canopy, shuddering as if held together by

sinews. I laughed, snowcapping my knuckles on the steering wheel…

Made of Things That Aren’t Mine by Hadley Adkison

There is nothing of me

That is solely me

Each crinkle of my eye

And knowledge of each bird

Comes from my family

I harbor in me

Their hopes, dreams, and desires…

Dog Daze by Sarah Synar

It is summer and yet 

I am not a child catching butterflies 

Gulping down sour lemonade until my tongue tingles 

Running barefoot through the muddy lawn, stumbling into the pool…

Celebrity Sentence by Payton Willhite

I think sometimes that

I could be famous.

maybe it’s the shape of

my ears or the general

disinterest in having my photo

unexpectedly taken. I have 

always craved…

Bones by Sadie McDonald

If I passed my bones,

Walking down the street,

Would they stop to say hello?

Would they even recognize me?

And if indeed they did,

Who’s to say I them?

Graveyard Picnic by Jackson Cook

When Aldous Beaumont, Sr., kicked the bucket in a scorching motorcycle accident at the age of seventy-three, there weren’t many kind words to say about his time on Earth. He was a rotten troublemaker whose only gift seemed to be causing havoc in the lives he came into contact with. Anyone foolish enough to ever trust Aldous Beaumont, Sr., would find themselves robbed and cheated…

Devil Town by Jackson Cook

Characters

NAILDUCT: A six thousand 
year old demon who dreams
of what life is like
outside of their dead end
job in Hell’s call center. SLUGBOX: A younger demon
who is career oriented and
competitive.

Crazy Old Bird Lady by Mary Kemp

I was scared I was going to become the crazy old bird lady who sat on the steps of St. Augustine’s Cathedral. 

St. Augustine’s stood proudly across the street from the city park, a cluster of evergreen trees and brown barren elms that stretched like skeletons against the cold December sky. 

Aquarium Love by Mary Kemp

Max sat in the neon glow from the tropical fish tank, and I could have sworn I was looking at an angel. Something otherworldly filled the dorm room – and maybe it was just the ethereal, electric blue light from the aquarium, or the upper I had taken before visiting my friend’s room – but I was certain it was magic…