Big Moods for $1,600
by Meredith Faulkner

Alex Trebek has been dead since 2007.
Sony CGIs his head onto a lookalike body:
a salesman from Milwaukee, father of two.
Yes, Alex, let’s make it a true Daily Double.
What is a metaphor for imposter syndrome?

Petals in a Trash Can
by Meredith Faulkner

When I was in the third grade,
our teacher put a daisy in a glass.
She added drops of blue food
coloring and told the class to wait.

I am, thirteen years later,
sifting through the thoughts
that were planted in my brain
by the sick stranger in my skin,

who whispers sour somethings            
like acid rain creeping
so deep into my roots
showers can’t scour her out.

While watching the droplets
rain into the shower drain,
I remember: the daisy
turned blue, but it was still

a daisy.

Meredith Faulkner is a writer, editor, and mom-to-be living in North Carolina. She graduated from Loyola New Orleans and has worked in the writing industry since. Her work has also appeared in MICRO // MACRO, Nightingale and Sparrow, and Kissing Dynamite. She tweets @faulknerwrites1.