Romantic Love https://www.thesunmagazine.org/rss en-us City Chickens I never thought // I’d end up like this, domesticated as a pet lamb, / with a mate who worries our hundred-year-old house // needs new everything, shingles to foundation.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28990 Sun, 31 May 2026 15:00:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/606-city-chickens 606-22-estep-preview.jpg 606 - Estep - Luterman Practicing Taking piano lessons, learning to speak Russian, seeking enlightenment

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28975 Thu, 30 Apr 2026 11:00:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/605-practicing 605-30-anzorena-preview.jpg 605 - Anzorena - Practicing My Bowstring Heart On the field I was all animal instinct and brute force—a bruiser, a bone breaker. Every tackle was a rebuke against a life where fathers die. When I played rugby, I wasn’t a broke, lost little girl. I wasn’t a struggling amateur writer. I had goals. I was a winner. I was MVP. I was someone.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28969 Thu, 30 Apr 2026 11:00:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/605-my-bowstring-heart 605-38-yeomans-preview.jpg 605 - Yeomans - Whitmore Four of Cups Maybe it was a mistake choosing such a solemn and contemplative place. Raising your voice above a whisper feels like an intrusion. The entrance branches into different rooms, leading you through multiple cultures and eras. You can move through time, follow the various paths available to you. You pick a direction and go.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28956 Tue, 31 Mar 2026 10:00:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/604-four-of-cups 604-24-ellis-preview.jpg 604 - Sayers Ellis - Gregory The Trouble with Pillows michaelmark3@gmail.com She needs one medium / and a soft. He’s a soft.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28954 Tue, 31 Mar 2026 10:00:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/604-the-trouble-with-pillows Pockets Shoplifting cigarettes, running the pool table, creating a “pocket prairie”

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28943 Sat, 28 Feb 2026 12:00:00 -0500 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/603-pockets 603-32-kral-preview.jpg 603 - Kral - Pockets Indecision “Whether you go up the ladder or down it,” / says the Tao, “your position is shaky.”

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28937 Sat, 28 Feb 2026 12:00:00 -0500 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/603-indecision Nicknames Get to know Boxcar Betty, Stick Dick, Lali, and the Cajun Asian

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28923 Sat, 31 Jan 2026 12:00:00 -0500 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/602-nicknames 602-30-bookbinder-preview.jpg 602 - Bookbinder - Nicknames Love Language I read somewhere that most men receive flowers / for the first time at their funeral. So I filled a vase / in your apartment with puckered roses

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28914 Sat, 31 Jan 2026 12:00:00 -0500 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/602-love-language Stirring the Pot Leading a strike, starting trouble between sisters, feeding strangers

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28904 Wed, 31 Dec 2025 12:00:00 -0500 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/601-stirring-the-pot 601-32-stone-preview.jpg 601 - Stone - Stirring the Pot A Thousand Words A Thousand Words features photography so rich with narrative that it tells a story all on its own.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28900 Wed, 31 Dec 2025 12:00:00 -0500 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/601-a-thousand-words 601-19-bromberger-preview.jpg 601 - Bromberger - A Thousand Words Waterfall Sex, to me, was like a solvent, cutting through layers of everyday grime. Without it, irritations accumulated with no way of wiping the slate clean; disappointment coagulated into distress. I felt forlorn, restless, and disconnected. Yet no matter how many times I sounded the alarm, my husband never seemed to hear me.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28896 Wed, 31 Dec 2025 12:00:00 -0500 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/601-waterfall 601-24-matthiessen-preview.jpg 601 - Moser - Matthiessen I Always Wanted a Wife I didn’t mean to / eat your berries, he’d sing after eating / all the blackberries I’d been saving / for breakfast, and I couldn’t be mad then / because he’d made me laugh.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28894 Wed, 31 Dec 2025 12:00:00 -0500 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/601-i-always-wanted-a-wife Tassajara The abbot declared your beloved pit bull had Buddha nature, / so you carried her sixty muscled pounds to the mountain // monastery, where we sat sesshin and she ate wool socks, / a box of chocolates, and eight pages of Robert Aitken.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28893 Wed, 31 Dec 2025 12:00:00 -0500 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/601-tassajara The Lonesomest Sound in the World When the kids came to school, we tortured them because they smelled and wore the same clothes every day, until they just shut down, not even looking at us after a while, never raising their hands, never saying a word.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28861 Fri, 31 Oct 2025 12:00:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/599-the-lonesomest-sound-in-the-world 599-22-padian-preview.jpg 599-Padian-Hodgen Red Desert Sometimes I think of my early years of living in the city, that watery phase of life when you don’t plan beyond the next week, or even the next day, and every new connection is imbued with promise.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28829 Sun, 31 Aug 2025 12:00:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/red-desert-grace-chao-romantic-love-art-creativity-597 597-38-daussin-preview.jpg 597 - Daussin - Chao Our Star Once upon a time, there was no such thing as time. Then bang!—the first particles, cooling into the first atoms, clumping into the first nebular clouds, collapsing into the first stars, shining out the first light, unspooling over billions of years to make it all happen: the joy, the love, the pain, everything. Don’t ask how. Nobody knows. But here we go.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28802 Mon, 30 Jun 2025 12:00:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/595-our-star 595-44-hayles-preview.jpg image description 595-hayles-googins.jpg A Thousand Words djpearlman1@gmail.com A Thousand Words features photography so rich with narrative that it tells a story all on its own.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28777 Fri, 30 May 2025 12:00:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/594-a-thousand-words 594-23-pearlman-preview.jpg 594-pearlman-a thousand words Back Cover http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28849 Wed, 30 Apr 2025 12:00:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/598-back-cover 598-50-Tyree-preview.jpg 598-Tyree-Back Cover Like Love Is A Heart I hate it / when they do that. Like I’m easy / to love. Like love is a heart / he can sit behind / the wheel of, drive / through town, windows / down, dog and girl along / for the ride, as if he’ll never / ever change his mind.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28717 Fri, 28 Feb 2025 12:00:00 -0500 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/591-like-love-is-a-heart 591-20-werdinger-preview.jpg 591-Werdinger-Didyk Stadium lights on a rainy evening in Joseph, Oregon. Hymn reese.menefee@gmail.com We exist on the cusp of light and ruin. / Some nights I pray for time // to fold into itself, then spit us out / small and smooth like tumbled rocks, // alloys of past and present.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28683 Tue, 31 Dec 2024 12:00:00 -0500 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/589-hymn 589-46-meza-preview.jpg 589 - Meza - Menefee Timing A broken clock, a chance encounter, a long-distance relationship

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28603 Thu, 31 Oct 2024 12:00:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/587-timing 587-30-bruns-preview.jpg 587 - Bruns - Timing Flower People jholman0099@gmail.com There was a rumor the NAACP would call for a boycott of white-owned businesses. Eugene’s mother said it wasn’t clear what the objective would be, except to piss off white people and make Black people feel in control of something. “A show of Black power,” she said, holding up a fist from the living-room sofa, but she was worried more people would be killed.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28598 Thu, 31 Oct 2024 12:00:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/587-flower-people 587-16-whiteman-preview.jpg 587 - Whiteman - Holman The Dream span.author {font-family:Merriweather, serif;}

In the small, trembling room of my longing, A., / Last night—summer wearing the walls, autumn / Spread in orange colors on the floor, upon which / We lay, two quiet pianos, soul music pouring / Over the hidden grass—we touched, my face to the mirror of yours.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28555 Sat, 31 Aug 2024 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/585-the-dream still lives The omen comes in the ruin of a robin’s egg on the sidewalk: fractured blue splattered with the pink makings of a flightless thing. A plum membrane of skin stretched over eyes like bruises. I make the mistake of looking back at this small disaster, and then the calamity of it fingers the threads of my morning.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28554 Sat, 31 Aug 2024 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/585-still-lives 585-38-foley-tapia-preview.jpg 585 - Foley-Tapia - Romero Misunderstandings Missed calls, misheard lyrics, mistaken identities

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28553 Sat, 31 Aug 2024 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/585-misunderstandings 585-30-winston-preview.jpg 585 - Winston - Misunderstandings Wedding Colors Somehow my bubble went unpunctured for twenty-four years, allowing me and my coffee-colored skin to arrive in Hartford, Arkansas, blissfully ignorant of what my Blackness might mean in this place.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28547 Sat, 31 Aug 2024 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/585-wedding-colors 585-14-gomes-preview.jpg 585 - Gomes - Owens New Life Since I had no one else to ask, I asked the hunger where it wanted to go. It said, West, like that was a point on the map called Freedom. So I drove west. I stopped at a Walmart somewhere in Kansas and bought a propane camp stove and a tent, because hotels were not in the budget.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28509 Mon, 01 Jul 2024 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/583-new-life 583 - Malizio - Osterloh - Preview 583 - Malizio - Osterloh Gift Shops of the American Wild The Paradise Inn sits at 5,400 feet on the south slope of Mount Rainier, the highest peak in Washington State. Up here the air is thin and crisp, the colors are saturated, and every breeze carries an aroma of pine and the trill of birdsong. Even immersed in such concentrated beauty, my heart aches. For the hundredth time today I think of Jack, a fellow writer in the graduate program I recently completed. We bonded over our love of books and our homesickness for the Midwest.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28440 Thu, 30 May 2024 00:01:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28440-gift-shops-of-the-american-wild 582-26-witherspoon-preview.jpg 582 - Witherspoon - Mandelbaum Happysad leathtonino@gmail.com Gobbling tortilla chips with gleeful abandon, I forget to chew, and one triangle catches in my throat. Instantaneous panic. Sudden, deep, mammalian fear.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28418 Tue, 30 Apr 2024 00:10:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28418-happysad