by Bill Kitcher I My dad made me go to the play at the school he was working at for a year. I didn’t like plays in those days. I generally didn’t like things that forced me to go outside. I liked reading and TV. I didn’t like going to…
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Like the Dinosaurs
by Mitchel Montagna Evening came, and never passed throughIt clung to the valley like smokeThe heat settled in and no earthly wind blewA layer of clouds swiftly broke. People looked strange in the dim purple lightTheir pallor and features were goneThey huddled on corners and waited for nightBut twilight just…
Earth Hour
by Dee Allen MARCH 26, 2022—8:30pm to 9:30pm PT On this Saturday evening,I take a breakFrom electricity. Decisive move,Hand to wall switch.Lights off. Candles on. Lit match to a few candle wicks.Shadows on walls and ceiling shimmy,Dance to flame’s spontaneous rhythm. Dimly litComfort zone, filled withComfort food on a plate,…
Bamboozled
by Abbie Doll A meditation— Picture a thicket of bamboo. A towering emerald forest. Nice and dense. Sunlight speckling the stalks. Embrace the serenity, and breathe. Deep. She listened, allowing the calming imagery’s swift delivery of reee…lax…ayshun, RSVP’ing yes to the bamboo’s cordial invite into this thriving garden of contemplation….
Birthing
by Leila Farjami I Would you liketo own a broken heart? Do you have any usefor one? I’ll give you mine for free. II I have a fatal—black-haired,immigrant-status,countryless,head-in-the-clouds,awful-daughter, bad-sister,nagging-wife, bitter-hermit,wild-witch, human-imposter—condition. III I am all pain. This pain isthe eternal ash treeoutside my windowthat rehearses dyingeach winter,clings to whatever remains,…
A Late Night Visit
by Jess Earl Mama told me that thunder is just the sound of angels bowling. The angel outside my window doesn’t have hands but maybe it just can’t bowl, like how Katie can’t eat peanut butter. The angel doesn’t look like the ones in Mama’s paintings; it looks like a…
All Houses Fall to Disrepair
by Joshua Snyder One thinks, usually, that with effort comes reward. Duke and Lian expected a reward to befall them after their first summer, but success was not instantaneous. The reward for Duke and Lian, as it was with most people of the nation, was financial. They hoped and wished…
A Child Waiting
by Laine Derr Like a red-faced warbler,he stumbles across our yard. A father I rarely see, imagesof dappled light mark a face familiar, like a morning mirror,eyes singing a summer song – I come from a jagged lineof men who leavetheir wives on sunny days,kids playing in yardsnewly mowed, tortoiseor…
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by James D. Mills There is a term used in support groups to describe a sudden onset of extreme emotion. When the dam of composure that you so carefully built comes crumbling down and there is nothing that can withstand the raging rapids of your own despair. The Grief Share…
Flowers Wither Faster Than the Dead
by Roxanne Finniss I understand whyyou never wanted to be buried.It begins with a hole6-feet below to preventthe odor of decay.They preserve your skin and organsthrough the process of embalming.Then your family must decidewhether your body mightbe presented in an open casket. (A dead body,that no longer holds the soulin…