CLAIM FOR THE MEEK (By John Biscello) I do not want to see the face of God. I want to see her mask, where and for whom it cracked, the causal history of lines and fissures; want to trace, with blind mute innocence, the light quartered and drawn in Braille, its grooves holding, without strain or regret, Mercy’s hidden […]
Read more
Take Two And this is why I love film. No one stutters unless they mean to. They represent themselves in the best take of all. I am a silent performer. When I drive down the road, I belt out music like a professional. I wish I hadn’t told you that. In my mind, there’s an auditorium. Figures from my past […]
Read more
Mud Intimate I plunge my fingers in mud and sculpt a twig spine, line of dirt deep massage for all the hurt sluiced through river banks and muck. I tickle the cherry tree root so its limbs can feel a hand’s warmth, a glow that stimulates stone fruit. In that line I poke a stone, rounded rock of muddied […]
Read more
Courage (Getting Out of Bed) My heart grows restless, my limbs heavy The paradox of a frustrated mind The simplest things seem unattainable Before me There are mountains to climb I am eager, yet, sit motionless Failure the constant on my mind I sit and worry …and wonder Before me There are mountains to climb I long […]
Read more
The Fiction of Art Captive on canvas, a gray-haired man stands, palms outstretched, shoulders in deep shrug, pleading with a woman bone-thin with rage who aims an arthritic finger at him. An orange cat cowers under a corner table. How long has she been mad at him, this man who plays husband — minutes, decades? The couple […]
Read more
I died from a rattlesnake bite and found myself in line with other zombies in front of a bank of elevators, the doors opening and closing as if by metronome. Every time a door opened a voice called the names of 12 zombies who boarded the elevator single file. As the doors closed, Led Zeppelin or Bing Crosby played in the background depending on whether the […]
Read more
Separation A prose by Hannah Willingham I speed down the three lane highway with the music blaring and the sun burning. Everywhere that I look there is light. I crest the final hill and wiggle with anticipation. I see the ocean on my right and the concrete waves to my left. “There’s no going back now!” I sing as […]
Read more
Photography – Kayaker (By Melissa R. Mendelson) [su_melissa_mendelson]
Read more
What We Notice – By Gil Hoy I first lived like a tadpole swimming up-current in a raging river Not noticing that I’d been crowned heavyweight champion of the world, the impossible odds overcome, or the miraculous union with my waiting cell that might otherwise have been washed away and lost. The lesson is that you have already overcome […]
Read more
IN WILLIAMSBURG In Williamsburg we learn How freedom ours was earned, At least for lucky born Of alabaster skin. Their independence claimed By declaration famed That Founding Fathers framed, Though was still had to win. But if from continent Of African descent, Whatever effort spent Was not for likes of you. Four score and seven years Still had to bear […]
Read more