By Dotty LeMieux The gun tucked neatly in the large man’s waist I avoid his stare, move slowly, lock the door I move slowly out the door Cap pistol held at the ready The gun moves out in the large man’s hand Children run fast across the lawn I cross the lawn going pop pop [...]
By Samy S. Swayd don't drink from this dripping cracked cup, for it’s my own heart— my beats poured into words for broken lines, making this page perplexing and pale. but if you take a taste, you must sail with a deep breath and an active mind, and paint a spirited sign to remind you [...]
By Kathy Kremins "I sat with my anger long enough until she told me her real name was grief." – C.S. Lewis We are better than this No, we are this Always have been Columbus mission schools Tulsa Race Massacre Charlottesville La Operacion children in cages smallpox pipelines voter suppression We are better than [...]
By William Palmer What happened January 6 was forgettably minor, the most popular Fox host claimed on June 9, the first night of the House Select Committee’s Report, so forgettably minor he did not allow any commercials during his show, decreasing the chances viewers might stray, or might consider the view that what had happened [...]
By Zoë Fay-Stindt I sing to the green anole in a made-up lizard language— fiddling tongue, whirlwinds and whistle- clucks. He curves his neck, ear hole craned to my porch perch. He pinks his bubble-throat. For years, I saw devil horns peeking from each human head. Yes, the chemical, the highway framed with fields and [...]
By Laura Grace Weldon If a grizzly wanders into your social media don’t make eye contact or sudden moves. Abandon the sandwich you were eating, leave the small square of chocolate you saved for last. Sharks often appear in parking garages silent, stealthy, even as you confine your blood’s scent under a coat pulled tight, [...]
By Flavian Mark Lupinetti when the gun smoke clears and the EMTs bring the bodies to my ER and I ask why they bothered and they say we need someone to pronounce them most times I say you pronounced them just fine but today I can’t bear to make that joke because these aren’t so [...]
By Dia Calhoun for Ukraine, 2022 Because the woman hugs a green glass bottle yellow-wicked, and waits by the fabric store where she once bought the blue wool for her coat, the scarlet gingham for the kitchen window, coral flannel to snuggle her baby somewhere now on the pouring road to Poland— Veni Magna Spirita [...]
By Eric Abalajon My coffee tries to push back the basement chill crawling up my legs, as I read a friend’s message. I want to describe to you my table, Mayamor. I remember your poem where you simply list the towns won over by, and sustaining, the movement. It was, however, a security issue to [...]
By Penny Perry For my Aunt Leona Heyert Tarleton who died at age 33 We are looking at the mockingbird in the lemon tree. This is the first day of my cousin’s summer visit. I wriggle closer to her. “I know how my mother died,” my cousin whispers. The gazebo is the place for secrets. [...]
By René Marzuk We walk to the edge of the pond at the far end of the backyard—a pond dirty and small, slightly bigger than a bathtub—filled with plants and fish carefully chosen for their ability to survive off each other. “An ecosystem,” you offer. A grubby Eden. Colored shapes appear and disappear within the murky [...]
By Elizabeth Spencer Spragins anguish overflows levees lined with unbleached bones— a channeled fury gathers silt of centuries and the river roars their names Elizabeth Spencer Spragins is a fiber artist, writer, and poet who taught in North Carolina community colleges for more than a decade before returning to her home state of Virginia. [...]
By Emily Hockaday I sing to the water and lower my only child into the foam, wiggling toes first. I think about all the species the ocean held that I don't know the names of that have gone extinct this past year and focus on the sound of the waves and all the metaphors that [...]
By Karen Kilcup Who would want to live in a world which is just not quite fatal? –Rachel Carson A one-woman Revolution, Jemima Wilkinson was stoned for preaching the light that lives in everyone. The Public Universal Friend was driven north from Philadelphia to the Finger Lakes, her movement forecasting what would follow: women’s rights, [...]
By Lorna Rose I listen to the sweaty silence, his throbbing presence as he stares at my developing chest. I learn to calculate the tides. Learn his breath smells like mints when he’s offering me up. Men’s gazes have teeth. Pivot and scan for the response he wants at the appropriate time. You’re pretty. Perform [...]
