Temporal Boyfriend

NOW PRESENTING BOYFRIEND VILLAGE 2025

THE NINTH ONLINE EDITION OF BLACK WARRIOR REVIEW

“WELCOME TO THE VILLAGE WITH ALL OF THE BOYFRIENDS.”

– Brandi Wells, 2018

There’s No Time Like No Time

A Letter from the Editor

In the story that serves as the namesake for this publication, former Black Warrior Review editor Zach Doss writes, “The Village with All of the Boyfriends is where all of your boyfriends wind up eventually. You built this Village for them and they can’t leave and neither can you.” Like his contributions to the Black Warrior Review community, the space that Zach describes here is inherently timeless—occupied at all times by past, present, and future. Defined by strict confines, yet growing beyond capacity.

With this description in mind, it’s only fitting that the newest addition to the Village is this: Temporal Boyfriend. An issue which, like its namesake, is overflowing with life and variation.

The Pigeon Coop

The important thing is that the pigeons are dead.

Fiction by Carleton Whaley

M11

They opened the shriveled cowhides, bracing
for what? All skeletal perhaps. Instead saw
your unembalmed face.

Poetry by Alex Fang

See the Face of God and Live

Sometimes I remember shapes we made and picture us as constellations, shiny dead clusters, creating some kind of story I could retell again and again to make a point or learn something.

Nonfiction by Emily Falkowski

Four Stages of Decomposition

The first dead body I ever saw was in a ditch, when I was eighteen. I couldn’t see his face.

Fiction by Michelle R. Brady

Virahārdram

while    careening
through an endless
carousel
of his selves with edges
crumbling
like rusted razor blades

Poetry by Ashwini Bhasi

Invincible Spring

The magnolia tree out her window is blooming again, older than the dinosaurs and harder to kill.

Fiction by Pauline Holdsworth

Car Crash

Through the windshield the night is shattered and I better understand.

Fiction by Connor O’Mara

Analog Wonder

In the house-shaped, clapboard
dream, two friends – wives – introduce me to
the Analog Wonder.

Poetry by Tessa Stackow

Featured Artist

Ana Prundaru

CUT!!

CUT!! is a 2025 Filipino supernatural horror film directed by Angelo Ty-Baldonado and written by Regina Roño.

Fiction by J. Marcelo Borromeo

One Nation Under God

The second coming takes a week and 99 years. Abraham Lincoln is resurrected with a face capable of over 250,000 spasmic combinations.

Fiction by Annabelle Lynne

Lane Line

I’ll assert that neckin’ is
a valid response to grief.

Poetry by Zach Powers

Time Warp

If time runs backwards, Brad and I will kiss on the dock in front of cheering friends and family, speak our vows, hold hands, and let go.

Nonfiction by Karen Maner

EVERY PLACE I'VE LIVED

EVERY PLACE I’VE LIVED/ WE’VE HAD TO BOIL OUR WATER

Mixed-media poetry by Bee Brown-Sparks

The first woman abducted by spacecraft

God forgive me if, blinking lights
on my neck, I want to be closer.

Poetry by Caroline White

DEAREST - (STOP) -

FIGURED OUT WORMHOLE METHOD – (STOP) – ALL THAT MEMORY MASS – (STOP) – WORRIED WHAT KIND OF COLLAPSE WE CREATE – (STOP) –

Poetry by Alexandra Bergmann

Designer & Editor: Michael Hughes Wesner

Editorial Team: Chinaecherem Obor & Darby Power