Mourning Routine

by ShivaRJoyce I was always the one to wake first. Some early, ungodly hour. It wasn’t because I was a so-called morning person but more that I loathed sleep for robbing me of my day and time. Some mornings the air still had a frosty chill to it that hadn’t been there the evening before. Boiling water on the gas Read More

Lost My Voice

by Joan McNerney Around the house under the bed,on top of book shelves,perhaps flung over my closet door,or hidden inside cubby holes. Have to look for it at all my usual haunts.Check out the library, ask my pharmacist,circle gas stations and stomp up downthat damn old supermarket. Not anywhere… geez this is tiringbetter sit down and think.When did I last Read More

Alone on the Bus

by MJ Christie One ear. One eye. Tattered arms. Tattered legs. Re-sutured seams preserved the life within. Ground-in dirt rouged his cheeks. There was an odour your mum had tried to wash away without success. “Shall we leave Ted at home today?” “No.” You hugged him to your chest. He loved riding the bus. Mum gave in, as always. If Read More

IVF

by Anuja Ghimire Agnes left the prayer hall before the pianist returned to her seat and the happy people who stood up to applaud the middle-aged woman noticed. She needed to wash the baby’s face from her eyes. Sharon had carried him like a prize. He wiggled his feet near the sparkling water, looked at Agnes, and smiled. And Sharon Read More

My Grandpa Knew Mr. Parkinson

by Bojana Stojcic “Let me help you, Grandfather,” said a voice to the old man as he stumbled walking away from the table. Grandpa nodded back, put on his hat he wore with style and, with a profound mistrust of anything new, left the room, unsure about where they had met. “Even elephants forget,” Grandpa joked. What he didn’t see Read More

Blueberry Waffles & A Side of Poignancy

by Neel Trivedi Chip Taylor opened his eyes as a shrieking sound pierced through his ears and painfully made its way to his head. He cursed himself for setting the sound so loud as he reached over and turned the alarm off his phone. As he checked his messages, he looked at the day. It’s Sunday, he thought. He paused Read More

Hibernation

by William Falo With gear packed and a rifle strapped to my back, I headed to mountain lion country in the snow-covered hills. It wasn’t long before my muscles ached. Dark clouds formed on the horizon after I huffed and puffed up the first hill. The approaching storm looked worse than they predicted. At the summit of the hill, I Read More

candy floss

by Tianna G. Hansen hip bones become butter beneath your tongue // melted, salty veins are rope lassoed to the rhythm of my // heartbeat //i mold to the contour of your hands // whipped sugar & creamcandy floss between your teeth // inhaled, sweet what will remain once you’ve had your fill — a hungering, vacant hole where you used to // Read More

Somewhere Separation

by Rickey Rivers Jr. Somewhere a man is hiding.He’s missing a bullet. Somewhere a mother is crying.She’s missing a son. The mother may recover for she is wounded as well.Not from outside in like her son.The pain shoots from inside out like the gun. The man remains on the run. The mother prays for his capture like one who expects Read More

At the grave of your death, I smile

by Elisabeth Horan For why not; God’s been joking with us All the while; He whispers placation In our ears, plants lust for the sinner’s Alcoholic slide, leaves dust where a Mother, her child, she should find. My loss, and melancholy, were it not For our friendship, would be funny, Really, I laugh at the nose of death – Pointy Read More