I was half-mad with despair,Hopeless in love and life,At the end of my rope--so I chose to drown,To cease all pain inSweet oblivion, to beNo more, to be gone….And when I flung myYoung and strong bodyInto that swollen river,I thought that’s whatAwaited me—nothing!But oh I was so wrong,For my agnostic mindCould not foresee theAwaiting vast... Continue Reading →

Dad takes us on a long drive as we reunite after two years. We come across my old schooldad starts reminiscing first day of my schooland exclaims, he used to be a brat;Mamma replies, this institution is a paletteof memories which turned him into a sincere boy. Two miles away, there’s an exhibition going onwhere... Continue Reading →

Silent, a shadow skirts the sleeping beast, the way you detour black ice on sidewalks. Never mention pain, nor love’s cold smiles. Do not share what stirs you in the night. The way you sidestep black on sidewalks like a crossover quick step from lockdown,you never share what stirs your nights.Avoid that door. It is... Continue Reading →

I cannot be sure; one iota of doubtWill cancel a lifetime of certainty outAnd even if, after I wake from death’s dreamI stand at God’s throne and he tells me his schemePerhaps I’m still sleeping and heaven or hellAre drug-induced fantasies - how can I tell?And if that is true of what’s outside my skinHow... Continue Reading →

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 →