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
Tag: mourning
before her mother died
by Lisa Reily she didn’t know that her family was only held togetherby an old plastic Christmas tree,her mother’s pierogies,and homemade lemon cheesecake. she had always planned to make her mother’s food,but only ever watched her cook;now her hands were lost without a recipe. she didn’t know her father had never understoodwhy her mother had left him, even though he’d Read More
Explainable Earthquakes
by Tammy L. Breitweiser The fancy folding chairs are arranged in soldier rows facing the front. A movie theater of grief; only one showing. All sounds are muffled like there are bunnies lining the walls. Low music plays distinctive to a funeral home. You never hear it anywhere else. To describe it becomes impossible and lives in the same fog Read More
Visitation
by Tiffany Belieu Rainfall of tires on asphalt. Subconsciously,a count begins, un-mourned graveson the side of the highway. Guts the consequence of quickness.Creatures who leapwithout looking, spindly leg blown glass fragile, mar the pristinemourning gown of our drive time.Tragedy is an unfolded map in lap en route to an open casket.Lilies, a dozen ghost brides trumpetingmournfully from the backseat. In Read More
i want to live
by Linda M. Crate i’ve seen so manyhoney bees and bumble beesi know it is you visiting you’re the bee keeperwho’s now found his beesagain, i can’t believe you’re gonesometimesbut dementia took your mother she is a cruelmistressa demanding one; i am sorry that you forgotyou remembered mewhen you forgot others it made me wonder if there’ssomething in me the Read More
Halves of Things
by Clara Burghelea A bruise down the thigh or sinkingteeth into another flesh. A ring of sky,or the deafening storm. Dreaming of coffee all my life, then hives.Obsessed with soft leeches,choking at the sight of blood. To have and to hold, otherwiseeasy with the in-betweens. Inksliding on paper, then softly barren. Lying on the floor with you,naming all secrets, or Read More
Because This One Is Broken
by Millicent Borges Accardi There was a boat, there were many boats,patterned after a fashion into a fleet.There were Portuguese widows who prayedand those who sang of sailors and their strong sea,amid the sky that we wore like a cape.There was a yellow radiance of sunset and howit used to be. Please, ask me, husband, and I will bringyou a Read More
Good Mourning
by Ashley Sapp hello mo(u)rning, your cold dew leaves a trail upon my skin, and I bear witness to how your weight waits to be seen by dawn, warmed by it, lightened by it, even consumed by it; new day, I am told, is a new beginning, but bereavement is a cycle – a 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