Category Archive: 20: September 2020

Rainy Afternoon in the Gallery — Julia Retkova

A tableau before you: grey room, lone table, Dutch sparsity, and in the background, on the hook, a scarf— blaring red, abundantly, obtrusively, so (it keeps shifting, jumping form one object to another,… Continue reading

Nan Madol — Victory Witherkeigh

They called it the Reef of Heaven now, but Hukulban could only chuckle to herself at that description. If they only knew…   They said the Lord of the Dead was said to… Continue reading

Steps — Caroline Read

When he says he wants to see you again, it will take a moment of reorganizing your thoughts to understand that he is being propelled forward by the Steps. You are halfway up… Continue reading

Leap of Faith — Mark Blickley

I’m a dead frog and I don’t say this with any pity or understanding or shame, it’s just an observation that people seem to like us, like us a bit too much because… Continue reading

Modern Lighting — Mike Buckius

Modern lighting is only effective if we have the ability to see things artificially. If the sun isremoved from the sky by say, a large, heavily gloved hand, then life becomes completely aboutstyle.… Continue reading

Til — Bobbi Sinha-Morey

Til the last light left the skyI thought about the silencein my home, how the yearswould sneak by like miceacross the field; and in mysolace outside my window,I gazed at the tiny cloudsof… Continue reading

The Painting Beyond the Image — Lillie Franks

Once upon a time, in a land beyond knowledge but not belief, there was a young king who feared time. When it was announced that his brother had died of a sudden sickness… Continue reading

The Inkwell of Loneliness — Flora Jardine

Sometimes the name they give you is all wrong. I was named Eva “after the first woman,” according to my mother. It has always seemed an odd choice, considering what happened to Eve,… Continue reading

The Cards — Krista Marie DeBehnke

Characters: Margot Wess (Fade in. Stage is a comfortable, bohemian-style apartment with a table CS, two chairs around it, an armchair SL and a fireplace UC. All materials are in in vibrant patterns… Continue reading

the faces of daffodils — Rob Plath

in the cemetery walking alone i knelt down to photograph the daffodils when i heard voices “aren’t they beautiful?” it was two old ladies walking down the path behind me “yes,” i said… Continue reading

it ain’t a choir #43 — Darren C. Demaree

trust the animals they don’t lie be an animal don’t lie the performance is a third eyeball we do not need get low stay low if you need to walk on two legs… Continue reading

What a day to be alive — Corey Hill

What a day to be aliveAs in not yet deadYet it’s always just yetCreeping in from the cornersPanic flyers, bugs of discontentYou still have skies Water and bird soundsFor now, it’s always for nowEither… Continue reading

My Father’s Face — Chandra Gurung

Two eyes glitter like the sun and the moonIn that faceA kite of self-confidence keeps flyingBeautiful orchids and rhododendrons always bloomCombating the storms of calamities On that faceA sun rises every morning to… Continue reading

Primal Instinct — Thomas Piekarski

Brazenly preternatural                     and antitheticalcanonical light                  integrates withclashing gasses               way beyonddigitized… Continue reading

37 Stages (audio poem) — Erika Hodges

***Erika Hodges is a gender expansive poet and performance artist living and breathing in Brooklyn, NY. They are a graduate of Naropa University and an MFA candidate at Pratt Institute where they are… Continue reading

Pandemic Symphony — Sonnet Mondal

The windswept mirages of Aprilare starving the city-memories.Occasionally, they simmerto bathe in the Nor’westers.The balconies and windowsof my house bring in impulses –Sounds of TV serials, some news debates,a distant music, a raucous… Continue reading

Midnight Matinee — S.B. Julian

     Many well-known writers have been famous insomniacs: Franz Kafka, Charles Dickens, Sylvia Plath, Emily Bronte and William Wordsworth to name a few. Most considered insomnia a form of torment which deprived… Continue reading

disguise — Maria A. Arana

you want to hide from the worldbut your movements give you awaybetter to stray like a cat in heatthan wander a lonely landscapewith nowhere to goand when the church bell ringsfor the third… Continue reading

Mourning Song for the Earth — Marjorie Maddox and Karen Elias

Here the stone heart waits for the tug of tide,  the undertow of pull,the grainy tabula rasa of mind lapped clean of conscience.  Or not. Even now,  seaweeds entwine; brittle entanglements rot in the sun.  The dying snare… Continue reading

Gods and Monsters — Valerie Jahns

According to Talmudic legend, Adam was a golem for the first twelve hours of existence, a body without a soul. Genesis, chapter two of the original 500 BC Hebrew version provides more detail:… Continue reading

The Ballet Flats of Satan — Jonathan Tuttle

After a long career Lou had terrible arthritis. She kept her wrists in canvas braces and used the index volume of the Catholic Encyclopedia to prop up her keyboard. On days the ache… Continue reading

Tryptic: adventure/aquatic vox/treeline whispers — Laura Minning

***Laura Minning began writing creatively at the tender age of nine. Her first poem was published by her Alma-matter in 1989, and her second received an Editor’s Choice Award by the National Library… Continue reading

Strangers, or Les Inconnus — Anne Marie Wells

CAST OF CHARACTERS ANDY – Young American tourist in France. He speaks no French. He’s kind of naive, but very friendly. NADINE – Elderly French local. She speaks no English. She’s kind of… Continue reading