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Caitlin, Tollgate Collector

By Tom Sheehan The sun, angling into her eyes, had come up “like thunder out of China ‘crost the bay,” and even as Caitlin Bordeaux made music of the poet’s words, she couldn’t remember his name. Nothing was right in the scene though the day had begun in promise. Nick had just gone through mere [...]

Mary’s Secret

By Ashley Murrell Children’s laughter and screams of joy drifted through the air around the playground on a warm spring day. Little hands flew up into the sky, expressing their hopes and dreams of the game that was most important that day. Lilly, the teacher chosen to supervise the kids’ outside time sighed as she [...]

Runner

By Sonora Greer-Polkow He ran He ran in the night He ran in the back seat He ran in the river The river El Rio Grande He ran in the river drowning in concrete He ran in the bottom of a flatbed truck He ran while shots fired into darkness The night La noche He [...]

Gingerbread Lady

by Michael Lee Johnson Gingerbread lady, no sugar or cinnamon spice; years ago arthritis and senility took their toll. Crippled mind moves in then out, like an old sexual adventure blurred in an imagination of fingertip thoughts. Who in hell remembers the characters? There was George, her lover, near the bridge at the Chicago River: [...]

Screaming Phantoms

by Che The whisper of you Screams at me From every crevice. My heart plays Cruel, cruel tricks on me; Thinking you Will burst through the door; But you won’t. Memories and dreams Make me think That you are walking Slowly by. My arms long to be Thrown around The phantom of you.

Communion

By N.S. Walker Essence of Wind, Water, Essence of Body and Mind–All, Grant swift delivery Of these words to a lustrous willow-eyed Enchantress across the seas, Bring my love to her refracting light on wild waters. Here I sing by might of Thor’s hammer through Pluton if my fate be so–long as we cross paths [...]

Sudden Death

By Kellie Powell So this is grief – This gnawing hunger for a truer resolution Beyond withdrawal, surrender, submission This sharp, screaming echo This collection of broken shards, nightmare corpses These deceitful shells This abandoned path Which ebbs and winds and dies. So pitiful, it doesn’t fit It does not complete something That began with [...]

Lovers And Love Knots

By T. Stegall-Smith As John Card sat in his living room crying over a black and white photo of his dead wife Julia, he fumbled with the rope in his hands, trying to tie a noose. It had been two weeks since she had clutched her chest and died of a heart attack. They had [...]

The Waiter and the Girl

By Adam Moorad It was early and no one had arrived at the café besides the young girl who stood in the sun next to the railing of the wooden deck. The neighborhood is hot at night but in the morning the cool dew collects and puddles in the warped planks of wood laid flat [...]

it is true that autumn

By Patrick John Green we move, and the movement doesn’t stop, and the longing doesn’t stop, or budge, or move, and the movement has become all there is to us, and now we only move. the breath is light and holds, and then is light again, moving out of all these people. all the pent [...]