Poetry Winner Barbara Black
microconundrums unheard music you swallowed a songbird its beak stuck on the same wrong note this is no time for minor...
read more
Poetry Finalist Sharon Black
Painting We don’t talk about the subject, its tilted head, the fat comma of its body swelling out of the frame. In the...
read morePoetry Finalist Angela Stubbs
I’m an Expert at Confessions I’d love to steal one of your brother’s vintage cars and go for a spin. If I said come...
read morePoetry Finalist Iris Dunkle
Charmian London Meets Harry Houdini That the heart is not shaped like a trick box though velvet-tongued, though bottomed with...
read moreAngela Stubbs’ Poetry
Feedback of Desire I want to crack an egg on your ass, fix your chipped nail polish, read those poems you never...
read moreTyrell Collins’ Poetry
Divine I stand by the seafront, The sky is— An elastic band of colors. I listen from the Quercus Virginiana[1] The...
read moreShelley Tracey’s Poetry
Admission Approaching you uncertainly, not expecting an admission through a wedge of gates fanged by steel wire. ...
read moreKath Jonathan’s Poetry
Without You I’ve loved you between these bars for too long. Inside my cheek I’ve scratched a scar for you. Soon I’ll forget...
read moreRobin Susanto’s Poetry
SONG AND FOG You told me rain was shelter, the mist on our lashes was stars, love grew on trees, and there was Summer under...
read moreHayley Antolos’ Poetry
X You know how to find them, my involuntary smiles. Tracing routes with your words over maps I keep to myself, somehow still...
read moreDon O’Cull’s Poetry
Delirium Our sobriety faded, we kissed under the canopy of loud sad songs, in the saucebox of the bar, between a dim flux of...
read moreLauren Suchenski’s Poetr...
I Hate That Trite Resolution I hate your hand on the trigger pulling these cliches towards us with a firm, magnet grasp I know...
read moreDaniela Elza’s Poetry
their thin mouths I slip through time sideways straightening up the dark. a note a...
read morePoetry Finalist Heather McNaug...
The Breakup I said, more loudly this time, “We’re breaking up,” then the line went dead, or the signal cut out—what do you say now,...
read morePoetry Finalist Addison Peacoc...
Love Does Not Look Good on Me Love has never blinded me, But it doesn’t quite match my eyes. And I hate the idea of a naked...
read morePoetry Finalist Kathlyn Meyer
Ragdoll She was physically rich. When she walked all hunker, swagger she could hear “mm-mm” a block before and after....
read morePoetry Finalist Pamela Dillon
She Went to Dance Oh, Fata Morgana, from my eye to the long line of the horizon I see you. Everything ripples in this desert...
read more
Mary Hennessy’s Poetry
How to Get There from Here Your Ava Gardner mama alive, juggling penny-wrappers and jars of peanut butter—Auntie Mame in a...
read moreAmber Johnson’s Poetry
i’m trapped i can feel it, the edge of eternity presses against the soul of me like your chest to my cheek & i know there...
read moreWilliam Ste. Marie’s Poe...
Possessions Not everything like a stomach ache, Only things that I didn’t know about, the things I couldn’t look for. Not...
read moreMia Romero’s Poetry
One Night i wake up with a start. i’ve been in a timeless deep, except i was always aware of you lying beside me and i’ve kept...
read moreDorothy Swoope’s Dinner ...
Sweet Valentine: At the piano you play chords of magic and mystery and maybe even a little hope. I feel the essence of this...
read moreWilliam Ste. Marie’s For...
Secret Valentine: We must never tell of a long ride home and how you said you were born in two places at once. We must never speak ...
read moreKaren McDermott’s Bored ...
Sad Valentine: driving on our first date look what a green fire hydrant they’re usually red Huh, I said ...
read moreKaye Linden’s Poetry
How Can A Woman? Pale pink, but the slender cartridge and shiny, slimy sensual lip slicker vaseline-quality of the new lipstick...
read moreAaron Poochigian’s Poetr...
Song: Defiantly of Love Meet her at Grand Central Station and walk her down under the bridge where the wild kids play in the street...
read moreLinda Rui Feng’s Poetry
Presidio: There to love the afternoon is to love in the afternoon. The colors are not the colors of flowers but of stones. You follow...
read more
From the Editor
LOVE and DEATH
We sent out this submission call:
We will all die. Everyone who loves us will die. Everyone we love will die. Let’s talk about that!
We were looking for honesty, anguish, humour and—especially—inspiration (we are, after all, taking this journey together).
We were richly rewarded, and today we are publishing the discussion.
We have a Talk to Me interview with David Layton and a COFFEE HOUSE CHAT (on our Facebook page) with Faith Banks.
There is nonfiction by Joanne Vannicola (a preview of her memoir, Walking Through Glass); short fiction by Michael Mau; poetry by Erin Armstrong, Roisín Browne, Aiden Chafe, Pamela Dillon, Iris Dunkle, Jane Morgan and Rachel Smith.
And Kim Echlin has contributed an ancient tidbit.
Linger as long as you like.
LOVE
Diane