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Blindfolded

November 25, 2020/in School Lunch, School Lunch 2020 / Safaa Ali

I gazed at the home, a lighthouse among the static, muted surroundings. I prudently adjusted my hat and rehearsed in my head exactly what I would have to recite to the ingenuous Gilbert family when and if I saw them. As I limped to the door, I felt my stomach retch with uneasiness and heave with discomfort.[…]

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Regrets?

November 11, 2020/in School Lunch, School Lunch 2020 / Alisson Mbonjo

Now I understand why others stayed silent while being dragged. They were thinking about the life that they had lived, as I was doing now. But what I couldn’t understand was why I hadn’t lived. How could I have wasted my life doing things I hate to train for an assessment that I was going to fail anyway?[…]

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I WALK

October 28, 2020/in School Lunch, School Lunch 2020 / JoliAmour Dubose-Morris

Every time I take the 7 Train, relaxing beside the wall, I notice the lineaments of each building with indented violet windows. I enjoy listening to the accompanying passengers’ music. I’m aware of how utopic our sky is. I’m aware of it all.

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Pulled Apart

October 14, 2020/in School Lunch, School Lunch 2020 / Lily Neusaenger

When you cry, you stare at yourself with more love than you know what to do with. You wish your lashes always looked that dark and your eyes always looked that bright and your cheeks always looked that red and beautiful, spreading life-giving heat against your pale, glowing skin. You feel yourself splitting in two.[…]

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Famous / Did I Say The World Was Fair? / Male Privilege Applies To God Too

September 30, 2020/in School Lunch, School Lunch 2020 / Su Ertekin-Taner

It was no coincidence that God created Adam first Because Women cannot be molded without there First being a man To create them To tempt them To crave them To devour them Adam’s ribs Were not given to Eve’s bosom Because of his generosity Were they? […]

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Lonely Spiders / Motor Vessel Sewol

September 16, 2020/in School Lunch, School Lunch 2020 / Juheon Rhee

She doesn’t feel my moist hands trail up her chin, up to the wings of her eyes tracing the buttery suns—of my bloated body keeping me afloat.[…]

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Yellow Filter/ Mother lies/ when ready to sky

August 19, 2020/in School Lunch, School Lunch 2020 / Esther Kim

where can i pull
a kind of madness from—

from perilla leaves?

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Life’s a Gamble

August 5, 2020/in School Lunch, School Lunch 2020 / Isabella Cheung

Quinn knew that his night was spoiled as soon as Monique Zambrano had walked down the grand staircase leading to the casino floor. She was in her usual choice of formal attire—a strapless, floor-length dress that was blackened velvet, much like how she described her soul.

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Time and Through

July 22, 2020/in School Lunch, School Lunch 2020 / Wendy Chang

It is hard to believe how fast time can travel. Before you know it, an on-going event will become a precious memory. As time passes further, these memories will slowly dry, “decay”, as if they’re something solid. No emotions will be stirred up again thinking of these memories.[…]

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Saccharin / The Great Wenhua Family / A Brochure for Powdered Faces and Black Dresses

July 8, 2020/in School Lunch, School Lunch 2020 / Sarah Zhang

The bike, sleek and glacé, was a gift from her bàba.Made of maraschino cherries, the sugar syrup dripped, coating her hands. The food color dyes her fingers.[…]

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Popcorn Machine

June 10, 2020/in School Lunch, School Lunch 2020 / Ashley Renselaer

Courtney sailed through her mother’s Facebook page hastily and yet steadily. This was the act of an expert browser who had seen every corner of that familiar and cherished page a countless number of times and knew where every mundane click would lead to. She knew how many pictures were posted and where, how many status updates there were, her mother’s favorite music, books, and upcoming events. […]

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Mental Colonialism / A Promise of Promise / Clipped Wings

May 27, 2020/in School Lunch, School Lunch 2020 / Harsha Venkataraman

I often wonder of the women before me, what if they were encouraged to soar? What farther heights could we reach? if half our wings were not caged away.[…]

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Odessa

May 13, 2020/in School Lunch, School Lunch 2020 / Eleanor Hunger

One of the mountains of belongings had seemingly collapsed into the negative space, leaving a sloping pile that scattered out several feet on either side. But amongst the avalanche of things, the hill of hard, solid, tangible objects, was something organic.[…]

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Writing a Memory Down to Save It

April 29, 2020/in School Lunch, School Lunch 2020 / S. E. Swea

ink is no different from skin, hair, spit and sweat: it bleeds, it weeps, it cakes like peat. And writing a memory down will not save it. […]

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Adam’s Apples / LITANY FOR TRANSIT / 12/21/12

April 15, 2020/in School Lunch, School Lunch 2020 / J. Xiang

on the day the world ends you pray for a portal to open above the teacher’s head, shining deep cosmic blue saying you weren’t wrong, that you deserve better than the ones who say you deserve better than the futures you already predict in cold-handed silence, in the words you read and will read again […]

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Overhoard

March 18, 2020/in School Lunch, School Lunch 2020 / Judy Xie

On nights like this, I’ll watch Hoarders to learn/unlearn empathy (for my mother). I love them, I cry with them, and I think I understand. Sitting criss-crossed in a pile of clothes, I fix ramen, wait (for you) to come home […]

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Harth rem ir Estevan is Dead

March 4, 2020/in School Lunch, School Lunch 2020 / Marion Deal

Harth rem ir Estevan is dead. It is the first time that I have read The Left Hand of Darkness, and I find that I have fallen for the brisk, deep honor of its principal nation, Karhide, and the empirical myth of its glacial world, Winter. In this place that LeGuin has created, an immaculately curated, textured oral tradition sits with craft and tact, unfurling honor clean and easy like butter.[…]

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Beautiful Like Us

February 5, 2020/in School Lunch, School Lunch 2020 / Dana Serea

We’re fourteen years old, with pudgy cheeks, flowered Converse and crooked teeth. It’s the summer before freshman year, and we’re lounging on couches in my living room with our eyes narrowed at the TV screen. My best friend, Lindsey, sighs quietly and says[…]

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The Fort Jackson Dam Can Take No More, DICTIONASARUS, Roman Prelude #1

January 22, 2020/in School Lunch, School Lunch 2020 / Charlotte Hughes

What’s left is
the local newsreels;
the WLTX women staring pixelated […]

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School Lunch: Time Zones

January 8, 2020/in School Lunch, School Lunch 2020 / Lisa Croce

The day after he left the city, I fluttered awake feeling gloriously pretty. The night before had been so surreal, so bittersweet, that just thinking about it made me a little dizzy. And he was supposed to call soon. I looked down at my fingers, reminding myself that they had touched him just hours before, and realized that they were shaking.[…]

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School Lunch Archive

  • 2021
  • 2020
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Friday Lunch Blog

Friday Lunch! A serving of contemporary essays published every Friday.

Today’s course:

Diagnosed at Sixty – My ADHD Journey

April 22, 2022/in Blog / Kait Leonard
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Why Video Game Preservation Matters

April 15, 2022/in Blog / Nicholas Galvez
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Sarees in America

April 1, 2022/in Blog / Majella Pinto
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Midnight Snack

A destination for all your late night obsessions.

Tonight’s bites:

QVC-land

May 6, 2022/in Midnight Snack / D. E. Hardy
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Escape Artists at the End of the World

April 29, 2022/in Midnight Snack / Lisa Levy
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The House in the Middle

April 15, 2022/in Midnight Snack / Megan Vasquez
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More coming soon!

Amuse-Bouche

Little bites every Monday to whet your appetite!

Today’s plate:

Antigone in NYC

May 2, 2022/in Amuse-Bouche, Poetry / Ann Pedone
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Slackers Rule

April 26, 2022/in Amuse-Bouche / Karen Regen-Tuero
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Ownership Records

March 28, 2022/in Amuse-Bouche / Lucy Zhang
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Word From the Editor

Here at Lunch Ticket, 2021 represents ten years of our literary journal. 2021 marks the start of a new decade, one I can only hope will stand as tall and iconic in the history of our publication as the jazz age in America. What we’ve put together this fall is what I call and will fondly remember as our “Roaring 20th Issue”.

More from the current editor »
Current Issue »

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