by Susan Pendley somewherein my dreamsand when I wake,the relentless crawler ticks.A senseless scrolling of regrets.I want to wind downinto that prairie-dog townand find you theregnawing on the cornersof my mind.If I wander through the mazeyou madewould I see you there?Could I touch youand hear your voice? I run through…
by Angelina Sandoval “Loretta! What’s growing up the side of the house?” Garth stomped in from the front door, dropping his fishing gear against the wall. His wife’s ever-present smile was beaming at his return. “Just some old vines,” she said. “I think they’re rather lovely. But don’t mind that….
by William Heath On the Serengeti you see so many edible animals roaming about, you wonder why there aren’t more lions around. They could feast on at least three squares a day and grow enormously fat, their kids could multiply and do the same. But it seems one feast on a juicy flank is enough to keep your African lion satisfied for…
by Kelly Sicard May we open our eyes to those who suffer. But if we are blind, may their cries and stories reach our ears. And if we are deaf, may their voices echo so they quake in our hearts. And if our hearts are hardened, may memories of grace-filled hands lifting us crack them open. And if our…
by Gil Hoy Last night we squabbled again in my dream. We squabbled about whether we’d been in love With each other and never another. And when we both agreed we had We fought about who’d loved the other one more, and why. I won that argument too (as I usually did) or maybe …
by T.R. Healy A Man in Half “Easy now, easy,” Surtees cautioned himself after turning the corner so fast his tires squealed. As he applied his brakes, he noticed that the sharp turn caused the paper bag on the passenger seat to tip over. A few hundred-dollar bills fell on…
by Bill Derry It is you, Carlos flashing your brilliant smile cruising your new bicycle sporting your black hoodie unabashedly you Yes, you, Carlos, innocent, eighteen, inquietante a spotless record already employed a consternation to your neighbors perturbador de la paz Yes, your Spanish-speaking, legal asylum–seeking, ideology-wreaking self,a palpable threat una verdadera amenaza So, of course, the early morning raid from ICE…
by Redde Michaels Did you see Aurora take flight? I overheard there was no Southern coy, so long as you had a camera to capture her streaking. Such a hasty raving from the harbinger of dawn, though her escapade was largely unnoticed here, where the vibrancy was lost against the…
by Sonnet Mondal Sometimes we run into someone just for once in our lives and our bones refuse to fit inside the skin the same way. Plans proceed as waves and recede as doubts. A fleeting joy with gnawing pangs of apprehension the stretch between experience and fear seems like the time taken by a fish to…
by Benjamin Drueke “Near the end of the twentieth century, humankind unlocked the human genome. At the end of the twenty-first, prenatal genetic manipulation was regulated, and all genetic disorders had been eliminated. In 2130, we had a stable colony on Mars. Twenty years later, global warming claimed Earth and…