by Richard Stimac CassandraAt recess, the boys pinched her budding breasts.She cried but didn’t flinch. The mean girls laughed.The teachers ignored her honest protests.As if by divine will, a turgid shaftof sunlight penetrated a cleft cloud.Just one teacher (the faculty…
by Linda Parsons Victory O how I want to loose thunderon the scrotal sac of females throbbing birthsongs in the eave of my porch.I long to press the Hot Shot button, spray brimstone until my arm goes numb,until the harrowing…
by Bryana Joy Poem For Whichever Of Us Is LeftI know how cold Comfort is I knowyou have no interest in getting over it,in sun or moon anymore, in beginnings.I did not write this poem to say whateveryone is saying,…
by Josh Mahler Acceptance after “When I used to focus on the worries, everybody” by Joanne Kyger If you ask why I don’t fear death, a reason good enough for meis waiting for the kinship of the sun, the light…
By Pat Daneman We Wish No Less for You You have everythingwe could not helpbut leave behind—rough-polished charms,chiseled tools,baskets and clay cupsin pieces or unbrokenas the day they last were filled.Raised up on columnsof stone, in a spacelike a temple,…
By Paul Jaskunas Bound to Happen Nearly every soul I know has hit a deeron this wooded road.A road so dark you cannot seeeven a glimmer of lightin the wall of treesstanding tall along the way. One day our turn…
By Jeff Hardin TREE The maple having died years ago while a walnutsprang up beside it, inches between them, nowcovered in vines, its own life strangled, the wholemisshapen form leaning south—I could havelong ago taken care of the clump, but…
UNDO THE FOLDS Rain’s syncopated beatdrums the tin roof.Wind pulls back the folds of nightand a voice runs through my head.It’s better to be welcoming,let it land like a birdthat sees it won’t be caught.A towhee swoops down for a…
Maxx Dempsey The First Conceit Eve discovered Adam had already bit the apple. He had eatenthe whole thing. This was the first lie man told woman.The surprise on his face at the taste of her offering was well put-on,but he…
Revelation by Sarah Starr Murphy Her mother named her Margaret, but the name slid off the infant’s greasy, vernix-coated skin. Everyone who loved the child called her Sweet One. Sweet One’s childhood was the rippling hush of barley in a…