by Lisa Leibow NARRATOROur annual day of drunken excessTraces back two and a half thousand years,To Shushan Kingdom, which stretchedAcross one hundred lands from IndiaOver to Ethiopia.The story starts with a sumptuous feast.A six-month-long party at King’s castle,Feet strolled on tile of onyx and garnets.Where tapestries hung from purple tassels,Wine…
by Steven R Weiner The music of barely singingIs hard to writeCan scarcely be heardLike voices rising from green wood,Shy smoke mixing with the steam,A little sibilance behind the daily buzzingLike harmonics so subtle that you can’t hearThem but the sound’s so full and richOr thin as an old tea…
by Christian Sexton She looks like a common painting, so common that I can’t decide which one. And she’s plain. She’s the person between girl and womanhood that’s not stunning and not ugly. You walk by her every day and forget her seconds afterward. “I am not from here,” she…
by DS Maolalai the classical musicof countryside birds perchedin ivy and trees, and seagullsa climax cacophony – jazzand it’s popular form – hardened musicwith teeth in a traffic jam.I hear it from rooftopsand look out from my windowon rooftops like rocks brokebelow me – chaotic and coveredwith the grey white…
by Eric Sommer Belzoni stood in the doorway, squinting into the dark interior. On the back wall, a large sign said Barbershop; it had a large, old-style peppermint-stick barber pole sign out front, too, which drew him in from the street. The interior, as best he could tell, had all…
by Jonathan Cooper The ferry washed low in the baywater swirled the piles,gurgled the barnacles. I saw her from the deck facing away,stone stillon the salt-shimmered bow. Horn blast! I bolted for the hatchfumbled for keys, looked back— black wingsetched againstthe pale, blue sky.
by George Freek I hardly recognize in this pileof rotting flesh and bones,that blithe lark, ascending,as he strained to reach the sun.I tried and lost, his carcassseems to say.What was he hoping for?Was he simply young?Did he dream of thosemiraculous clouds in the sky?Then learned they were vaporand vanished like…
by Karen Dybner The night was warm and sticky, much like the sultry July day it had been, but now at least there was the dark sky’s respite from the blistering sun. Inside, with the central air humming, it felt cool and comfortable. The kids had been asleep for at…
by Emily Eddins Do you know what it is To miss the soft touch of rain Stroking your roof Like the calm reassuring hand Of your dead mother On your fevered brow Holding a cool glass of water To your parched lips Hard and cracking like Drought-packed dirt Hugging defeated…
by Mark Howard In 2017, I left being a successful financial business owner to become a fifty-seven-year-old, first-year high school English teacher. I made that change because I wanted to. Now, countless thousands are being faced with a career change because of the pandemic. In my little town, there are…