Young, gifted Christy.Her voice–a memory,haunting, soothing, confusingme.Echoing Barbara Streisand’smemoriesfrom the corners of my mind.At the church,her mother, father–was there a brother, a sister?I don’t remember.But the memory of themwading in the water–saltyFlowing down the aisle–troubles me.God’s gonna trouble the water and mymemoriesof her ebony skin,her lipstick parted like the Red Sea.Go Down, Moses!Way Down, Moses!Her... Continue Reading →

Like a yawn. Like a rake left on a yard with a sudden winter coming on, the snow burying it, so that we forget where we left it. Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com About the Poet: Ron Riekki has been awarded a 2014 Michigan Notable Book, 2015 The Best Small Fictions, 2016 Shenandoah Fiction Prize,... Continue Reading →

draw the curtains start the movie in the welts of your lingering touch dance with me. no light no cigar no drinking. just shadows quaking in memorandum. of a lingering nuance heard. Yesterday, you were sitting in the rain upon a cobblestone. dress drenched in supernal grief looking at me make faces in the window... Continue Reading →

Come November, every five-lobed leaf of the backyard maple has been torn from its moorings by over-zealous wind. Dead brown corpses of once proud foliage litter the lawn, leave behind the gnarled bones of what was once a tree The pastels that sustained me through the turn in the weather are replaced by jagged branches... Continue Reading →

Slowly, over time Sometimes it’s you Sometimes me Adding brick to brick And then one day, just like that it is complete The wall between us Invisible yet solid – impervious. Well, look at us At least we built something together, didn’t we? Photo by Frans van Heerden on Pexels.com About the Poet: Ananya Sarkar... Continue Reading →

As doctors talks of Mother’s health degrade from bad to worse, I hear the words, but they don’t stay, they fly right out the window. I stick my sorry, soggy brain into a plastic bag, and stuff it in the freezer until it comprehends it must accept the winds of chaos. Photo by RF._.studio on... Continue Reading →

(to my granddaughter Athena) Just a lump upon my lap now, you will one day watch me dying. You’ll be sad, but not too much, I hope. Your first lesson in grief, I’ll be an easy one. It will get harder. So starting now while I am nothing but a shadow in your eyes, I’ll... Continue Reading →

Frowsty recall akin an unattended cadaver freights me to the edge of our ending when wretchedness spread its wings on runway of reactions: Like the last breath in an ailing body sometimes takes too long to conclude its cycle, we waited full of weltschmerz for the by-blow to our flight. About the Poet: Sanjeev Sethi has... Continue Reading →