Issue 7
-
J. Walsh, Radical Acceptance
Jessica Walsh Radical Acceptance ou can’t have that world,not the one you want. Still.One day, you’ll pause at the pumpto watch a pink-flame sunsetover McClarney’s Industrial Smoothingand the scrapyard beside itand you’ll love that sunset hard,the way you love a hot batheven though parts of you stay cold—knees, tits, a bit of soft belly—because you’ll…
-
B. Wildrick, One More Note of Your Song
Brenda Wildrick One More Note of Your Song A golden shovel after a line from “Joy” by Dorianne LauxHow long have I ignored the magic? Is there asecret world? The foundation of ordinary is so solidI can stomp on it without it breaking. But is a miraclewaiting for me just outside the pull of earth’s…
-
K. Browne, 2 Haiku
Kevin Browne Two Haiku scraping lichens from the passing years…stories hidden an old broken fridgedumped in the county parkprairie blooms Kevin Browne’s (he/his) poetry, prose, and photographs have appeared in literary journals in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Australia. His haiku have appeared in Frogpond, The Heron’s Nest, Akitsu Quarterly, and numerous other publications. He…
-
B. Ventura, Junk Drawer
Becky Ventura Junk Drawer Black bead, Band-Aid, buttons, business cards,craft kitten, colored chalk, carabiner, key chain,dirty dime, dull knife, dead bug, directions,flashlight, funnel, forget-me-not seeds.Glasses cleaner, game piece, wintergreen gum,hooks, hammer, heart-shaped hair clip,Joan’s jam recipe, jelly bean (stale),“Kleen Kanteen” care card, clothespin, cord.Little LED light, sadly left lit,miscellaneous magnets, matches, mints,neighbor’s back door key,…
-
P. Nolte, The Closet
Penny Nolte The Closet Our grandfather’s closet held an upside-down staircase circling down from high above, all the way to the floor. “Where might it go,” he’d ask, “if we all jumped to the ceiling?” A crowded row of hooks across the wall held his clothes, still smelling of smoke though he’d quit years before.…
-
S. Browning, The New Pope is a White Sox Fan
Sarah Browning The New Pope is a White Sox Fan And that news alone bringssobs to my sweetheart’s bodyjust recently made separatefrom the body of his Catholicbaseball-loving father.I don’t know where he endedand I began, he texts a friend. The new pope loves the Sox – the arcs of baseball and life: nothing happens and…
-
D. Brookshire & B. Gyles, Never A One Hit Wonder Villanelle
Dustin Brookshire & Beth Gylys Never A One-Hit Wonder Villanelle A contoured villanelle using Kimiko Hahn’s “Villanelle with a Line Borrowed from Bishop” I hated high school. I wanted to be out at the barnwith the goats and horses & away from her:woman of gripes and guilt, bent over the stove. Even if one of…
-
S. Waters, A Poem is a Place
Sharon Waters A Poem is a Place after Isabelle Correawhere words skip-count hopscotchand leap frog over themselvesuntil they form prayers, songs, stories, and conversations – with you,their favorite playmate. Sharon Waters holds an MFA from West Virginia Wesleyan College. She has work in 30 Short Plays for Passionate Actors, Women Speak-Volume X, and Kakalak 2024,…
-
JR Fenn, The Trilobites Would Like a Word
JR Fenn The Trilobites Would Like a Word We mutter about it here in our glass case in the hallway. We once lived in the sea and on land. All our adaptations, frozen in stone—our exoskeleton, our spinosity, our miniature eyes. The jawless fish beside us is always whispering, whispering about the great light in…
-
M. B. Thorne, How West Virginians Talk
M. Benjamin Thorne How West Virginians Talk Sometimes it feels like my pronunciationis parked on the berm of your understanding,like the way you look at me as if I broke the lawwhen I say the river’s name, but it’s not “KAN-uh-WAW” but “kuh-NAW”, the watersof dialect smoothing out the word. This iswhat you do in…