Scott Holleran’s writing appears in literature, including Classic Chicago magazine, which debuted fiction with his stories in 2024. Listen to the author read his fiction aloud at ShortStoriesByScottHolleran.substack.com. Read his non-fiction at ScottHolleran.substack.com. In Parentheses previously published Mr. Holleran’s “Prime Mover” and “Escape from Indigena”.
S. Holleran has work featured in the recent issue of In Parentheses Literary Magazine (Summer 2025). Listen to “Escape from Indigena” here.
Christened Bliss
How will I get through this?
My eyes still sting and cry
For the love I can’t dismiss.
We’re in love it’s true—you’re mine.
I’m lost and down. I am adrift.
Anguish does not slip away.
I long for you to come and stay.
Call for me, my highest one
I feel like dancing in the sun.
Without you near I’ve weaker knees
I’m here, I’m pleading, I’m yours, I’m free.
I go on drifting through the day
I want what’s mine, I want to play.
Have me close. Bridge the far.
Let me look upon my star.
Look, my dearest, I live with ease. I still adore you as you are.
Lift me up. Crush me down again.
Erase how long I have been
Hollowed, waiting for your deepest gaze.
Look and make me feel ablaze
I know I’ll wait for you. My dearest one.
You can return. You can be won.
Look into me, see my softest eyes.
Looking up at you, smiling deep inside.
I need to breathe, I need to dance.
I rise within your silent trance.
Shall I sweeten by that which holds my heart?
Behold my beauty, come still the hurting part
I grieve your absence, I’m bleeding out.
My tender, trusted man of bliss
I want and wait. I’ve earned your kiss.
To read the rest of the Summer Issue or purchase a print copy, please click here.
From the Editor:
We hope that readers receive In Parentheses as a medium through which the evolution of human thought can be appreciated, nurtured and precipitated. It will present a dynamo of artistic expression, journalism, informal analysis of our daily world, entertainment of ideas considered lofty and criticism of today’s popular culture. The featured content does not follow any specific ideology except for that of intellectual expansion of the masses.
Founded in late 2011, In Parentheses prides itself upon analysis of the current condition of intelligence in the minds of these young people, and building a hypothesis for one looming question: what comes after Post-Modernism?
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By In Parentheses in Volume 10
48 pages, published 10/15/2025
in parentheses 
enter the discussion: