in houses of stolen bones Peach Delphine __________ what remains what lives within our wordsours alone progress incremental visibility necessity we are not coin in your currency salt bartered flesh expendable bitches voices unfiltered rolling off Gulf tangle lightning wash your greens in three watersfor luck stem tear wash again progress incremental clear onions bacon…
Read MorePièce de Résistance Jane Blanchard __________ I wondered if this gatheringWould prove a bit too challenging,But so far it is going fine—Or well enough—for me and mine.Once soft or stiffer drinks are gone,The potluck supper can move on.Our host serves seasoned roasted lamb;Our hostess offers glazed baked ham.The slightly stressful…
Read MoreThe Stretch Mehreen Ahmed __________ Even if I were to bark up the wrong tree, so be it as long as I am barking something. I don’t know how to climb a tree. Wrongs can’t be right until a climb has ensued. I slide many times before I correct my…
Read MoreRubus Sara Gonzales-Rothi __________ Each drupelet an August delight. Borne of leaf litter, restored in frosty slumber, blossoming through the thaw, ripened in sun-bake. Betwixt pointer and thumb, then palate and tongue: delectable revelry. The morn stretches left. The eve, right. We find ourselves. Every need satisfied, here in the…
Read MoreThere is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
Read MoreLetter from the Editor Vallie Lynn Watson ‘Tis the season! Our “Boo”din theme of “monsters” has me harkening back to the last election cycle and remembering how I dealt with said stress: Halloween decor! Still early in the pandemic, I spent just about every day of October 2020 on my…
Read MoreLost in Canterbury Colette Tennant __________ Once, after a rough crossing from Calais to Dover, I entered England for the first time. Unashamed tourist, traveling alone, I slept the first night at Canterbury’s Pilgrim Inn. Maybe because I was by myself, they tucked me in a corner room under the…
Read MoreMaking King Kong Carla Sarett __________ Marion Cooper needed a monster. So he made King Kong upright. His beast stood like a human killer. The real challenge lay in adjusting the frame’s size without nonstop distortion, his Kong could be dwarfed by the Empire State, even a billboard. Kong was…
Read MoreStop Motion & Psalm [Crows rustle in the pine out back,] Clay Matthews __________ Stop Motion This spirit on the water now hovers over the darkness; I am moved to speak, and love pours out like honey and covers everything I forgive. In hide and seek you called my name;…
Read MoreNever, Never the Ouija Board Mark Hendrickson __________ To believe in ghosts seems a foolish thing (even ghosts don’t believe in themselves). Yet in the darkness my eyes have seen a message spread beneath the needle, slowly spelling out belated warning: Never buy the Ouija board— cardboard casket gathering mold, …
Read More