Once Told Once I told my partner that I do my best writing under the cover of night, because the twinkling stars shining through my bedroom window, straining to be seen against suburban streetlights, were there to cheer me on. In truth, it’s the only time I have to ruminate on everything I’ve ever said, […]
Read more "3 poems by Ashley Haberberger"The Parasite My hand isn’t mine. It keeps trying to hurt me. I was able to live with it, keeping the limb numb with mountains of meds. Until today. Now, I lay on the ground, with its fingers wrapped around a serrated steak knife. Pierce, stab, over and over, slowly tearing through the layers of […]
Read more "horror flash by Cristian: a teenager in south central new mexico"You Called It Amateur You sat at the end of the long table, spine slouched in triumph, flicking through the workshop packet like it was catalog junk mail— and when you landed on her poem, the one about the jar of buttons she found in her dead mother’s drawer, you smiled that lazy, sideways smile, […]
Read more "JEFF TOBIN ~ You Called It Amateur"Ode to Garlic Humble architect of appetite, builder of feasts, your essence expanding in the heat of the frying pan, melting into the broth or browning in rich olive oil where you will be added to the onions, zucchini, tomatoes, and paprika—neither too soon, nor too late, a ghost wafting from the kitchen, a whisper […]
Read more "ROSE MARY BOEHM ~ ODE TO GARLIC"IT’S TIME By Jenniffer Seward and Jessica Free It was close to midnight. Barely a sliver of moonlight peeked out through the clouds. Footsteps pounded on the cracked pavement ascending the rocky path toward the cemetery. As the footsteps approached the rusty wrought iron fence, dark shapes could be made out of the shadows as […]
Read more "IT’S TIME — HORROR FLASH BY 2 TEENS IN SOUTH CENTRAL NEW MEXICO"Reflection When I was in the hospital I was five years old and With another little girl Next door We talked And laughed Just knowing She was there I felt better My mother says I had a private room But there may have been a mirror
Read more "PENNY NOLTE ~ REFLECTION"My Place In The Garden Can’t out-beauty the rose – have to out-think it. It may be a luscious crimson, but I can remember who won the Super Bowl in 1984. What does a rose know of football? Its scent may rival a Paris parfumerie but it can’t size up its options, make a decision […]
Read more "JOHN GREY ~ My Place In The Garden"Real Hair The black man who stopped, said “Forgive me, but you have real hair I don’t see that often & it’s beautiful” I had it up in twin tails, how I learned to wear my mask, so the loops would go over my hair & not my ears didn’t say it till he saw it from the […]
Read more "Storm Ainsely ~ REAL HAIR"Ladybirds are god Picking up the seeds of shasta daisies – I see – a preponderance of ladybirds – materialising in between – my fingers – once I send one off on its celestial wings – I rudely awaken – more – from their nap – and they start oozing into the world – in […]
Read more "Míša Hejná ~ Ladybirds are god"White Sun (In memory of Henry Gonzales) I will not be attending your burial. Eight hours of driving in one day are too much for my old bones, I’m afraid. But I can imagine it well enough – the cold Ortiz Mountain air, the circle of extended family blurred by tears, century- old stones decaying […]
Read more "5 poems ~ John Nizalowski"
