Summer is coming to an end. And that can only mean one (important) thing: The August 2014 issue of Defenestration is here!

The August issue is always the hardest to put together. The winds of literary magic don’t blow very strong in late August, so we’re forced to accumulate magic through other, more labor-intensive means. We have to plan for this in advance. Eileen, for example, takes a trip to Ireland every summer to collect leprechaun feces (also known as “leprechuano”). We have to sacrifice three times as many unicorns, and it’s always a pain getting enough of them. Not to mention all the manticore tears that need to be bottled, all the demons that need to be castrated, and all the wizard bile that needs to be picked up from our cannery in North Carolina and shipped back to Defenestration HQ. And this happens before we even choose the content for the issue!

Thank you for submitting your work.
Though I am going to pass on this batch,
your poem “insert title here” came close.
Huh?
I immediately think of coming.

Maybe this reporter is competent and only
Momentarily seemed like a dumb hack
In this style piece that breathlessly declared
That bangs are now making a comeback.

he went peacefully
in the early hours
succumbing to
erectile dysfunction
his final request was
a last sponge bath
from the attractive nurse

recently, at dinner with friends someone said that we should all drop acid together
just for a single night give up being in control and live purely in the moment
looking at each other, we said, we’re old
no one had tripped since the dawn of the seventies
would our fragile brains and baby boomer bodies survive?