Strange Commandment

by Michael Igoe I want you to rise up,as if from sleep,feel the same wakefulnessyou get when you’re drowning.You must rise in bliss,let yourself play in traffic.You need to take part,in the multicolored parade,a vast opportunity to roast.Off the back porch,covered by your britchesI want the shirt off your back.Please fade into ancient hotelssip black coffee while you clean. Michael Read More

An Unsuitable Green

by Millicent Borges Accardi Shade of the color, the patternof clean fields,edible and charming, and, ina way, happy. You see, the callownest of life is its newness and hope,along with the promise of yetwhat is meant to stay. Green is the lackof winter, the end actuallyof a short story. Green ispleasantly alluring and easygoing.There is kelly and torch song andmoss, Read More

Should

by Peggy Landsman begins by saying “Sh,”trying to hide the factthat it’s loud. Then all its letters all together,but very indirectly,shout “Hold us!” We must put our shouldersto the wheel,make the world as warm and as lovingas we believe it should be. Peggy Landsman is the author of a poetry chapbook, To-wit To-woo (Foothills Publishing). Her work has been published Read More

Puncture Wounds

by Amanda McLeod You punch me full of holes and watch the life drain out until I am empty of anything that might be called happiness or love Darkness thick like dried bruises under my skin solidifies into flint hard, unmoving yet from the striking of me comes a shower of sparks a flame a sun I tear the holes Read More