by Lynne Shaner After what seemed like ages of leisurely kissing, days lingering in the garden, and hours leafing through piles of papers on slow, sexy Sunday mornings, he left. Sure, we had argued some—sometimes loudly—but who hasn’t? I had even been wearing my hair down, mostly for him, nearly…
by Melinda Butler The sun was a yellow ball in the sky, dipping its toe in the purple lake that was the mountain range. Below, a green ocean of grass that ran for miles. Samuel stood in line to get branded by his new employer. The Circle Bar X was…
by Abigail Robinson Amidst their thunderous voices, she is silent, burning with the need to speak. Amidst their thunderous voices, She is seething, shaking with potent thoughts she whispers. Amidst their thunderous voices, She is waiting, in honeyed patient words she sings. Amidst their thunderous voices, She is shaking, clinging…
by Yvonne Higgins Leach Be ready—the inevitable will come. In bewilderment when what you longed for didn’t come to be—a season ended too soon. In the dazed drama of hope’s departure— as she shrugs her anemic shoulders at you. In the capsized moment when your mind cannot bear the pain—and…
by Laurelann Easton Jennifer tugs her blouse over her stomach, a part of her that has never rounded, and twists the peridot ring she’d put on in place of her wedding band. The band had barely lasted her and David a year, and now they sit together in an iron…
by John Urban Apartment blocks South of campus In the distance, clouds Catch on Mt. Hamilton Yellow lamplight Early evening blue
by Libby O’Connor Dear Mr. Frost, I do not think this path is wide enough for the two of us. There is a road you’ve traveled, that I’d like to tread; But, Mr. Poe, my rapid heartbeat is driving me mad with its unrelenting T H U M P I…
by Isabel Brome Gaddis I haven’t lived in this little room for long but it’s already filled with my stuff the way an hourglass fills with sand. I wonder which things will still be with me when I die, and who will be left to decide what is a keepsake…
by Mitch Green Single, unattended – a body performs play. Inanimate, transient – lukewarm energy. Created, she’s careless – a vicarious peripheral. Tasteless, invasive – illusive principal. Serial, worshipped – doomsday Dillinger. Atmospheric, apparition – amble listener. Arsonist, artist – provocative division. Dainty, dependent – terrestrial human. Soiled, disheveled –…
by Michael McLean Bullets buzzed through the air like angry hornets. Those that didn’t hit dirt ricocheted randomly from rock outcrops. Mark Grayson hunkered down behind a meager outcrop as the unmistakable barks of a dozen or more Kalashnikov AK-47 rifles were answered sporadically by bursts from his outnumbered escort’s…