By Zachary Rahed Is it the end? Or just the beginning? A shaman sees an ominous convergence now emerging Into the starless sky, blessings are thrust  With uncensored curses, raging like blazing hearses  Prayers clasped there in a chauvinistic disguise The disciples drop to their knees, waiting Awaiting the sunrise, that fiery beacon For the …

By Hannah Deneve 6 months old. He brings life and energy to a home that so desperately needs it.  His youthful wonder and immense happiness is a welcome addition,  Bringing just a little sunshine to the darkness.  The world is his playground.  No need for toys.  No.  All he needs is a good rock,  And …

by Deklan O’Connor A = Mouse = Little tidy mouse Cleans his lovely little face Paws so little strong on spindled little arms You’re young, so slick and clean Neat in tidy warm little piles Slippery through the finger Adults so sticky fast they latch on Paws pass by all grippy grabby And jump with …

By Hannah Deneve I spend so many countless hours with you As you are my greatest companion  Especially in these days of loneliness Where we are locked behind closed doors It is just you And I I will never grow tired of you You and your comforting presence Others envy such a bond Calling it …

By Hannah Deneve Sitting towards the back of the deserted lot, I can see its dull silver glean: a 2004 Honda Accord with cracked leather seats, a dent and scrape along the left side–caused by a minor accident back in 2018–and a broken cassette and CD player. It’s not pretty, but it gets the job …

By Gina Guerra I reside in a gradient of magenta and royal blue where there exists a lavender. Where my passport reads United States of America and my tongue’s first memories are in Spanish. At the intersection of formal proofs and casual chiasmus. Near a feathered serpent who dons a cross. Teetering, tottering, nearing collapse.

by Gina Guerra Teetering, tottering, nearing collapse: Cannot make progress, try hard though I might- Time taunting me with its constant elapse. I keep on trying, despite my mishaps- Day turns to night as I write and I write, Teetering, tottering, nearing collapse. This time the words will just flow right? Perhaps. My blank laptop …

by Gina Guerra Some argue that sonnets are overdone One such person would not, of course, be I No: I believe that sonnets are quite fun Now I, of course, acknowledge the supply Exceeds the generational demand That Shakespeare bloke wrote hundred fifty four So many: far too many to withstand And so to study …

by Gina Guerra To giant humans Tezcatlipoca  becomes the prodigal half sun until  Quetzalcoatl plays extreme baseball and Tez retaliates by making the  jaguars rain supreme as he reigns supreme Meet your second sun: Quetzalcoatl Aztecs learn hasa diga eebowai Tez takes offence and transforms them into  monkeys. The Gods give up and try again. …

By Hannah Deneve I’m surrounded by a sea of grey and white, Clothed with old turtle-neck sweaters and khaki pants. Well-worn leather bags at their feet,  Most likely possessing spearmints, pills, some spare change, old receipts.  Their essentials.  Thick-soled shoes, paired with tall tube socks. Thin-framed square spectacles adorn their faces,  Vision obscured from the …

by Mark Desrosiers Four children playing hide an’ seek All fun to distract from dismay One is the seeker  He counts  One, two, three…  as he counts  Three run and dash about the manner One hides in the empty footlocker With a small layer of dust  And an unnoticed mouse dropping Four, five, six…  The …

by Zachary Rahed Vulnerable branches snap beneath time-worn sneakers A lone wanderer sighs Beside him, run tributaries sparkling like Swarovski crystals Wriggling, snake-hissing streams In the trees, a chickadee chirps a flashy Morse code Pleading to a sad, exsanguinated sun Green mountains salute the vagabond Our banished wanderer Into territories not slightly unfamiliar As when …

by Derek Rodman Four Walls Four walls and a bed. Clear walls and sound mind A place to finally call mine Infinite space to reflect Think about everything so far How’d I ever get this far? Weight of my bags, I no longer carry If I unpack this place will become Four walls and a bunk. …

by Erika “Joy” Jepsen My head spun as I pulled the heavy curtains shut.   I can’t keep doing this to myself, not if I want to survive.   I pressed my hands hard against my midsection, trying to push away the hunger pains.  I must have lost a lot of weight; it’s been almost a week …

By M J Bujold     Glenn shifted the weight of a Nattie Light 12 pack from his right arm to his left.  He was tired as an old horse and dirty as a mud pit pig. He looked down at his work boots caked with soil from the work site, dried mud dusted the …

By Gina Guerra I live in a society that depends on fire, and yet it terrifies me. It’s in our car’s combustion engines, it’s in our gas stoves, it’s the main attraction at our homecoming bonfire. Fire is invaluable in legends across the world—Prometheus stole it from Olympus, Maui from the Mudhens – hell, even …

By Mark Desrosiers Precious Precious The Precious is ours   We took it from his finger After we bites it off The blood was warm and nasty Not like cold fish So juicy sweat!   The precious is ours The detestable golden ring Is light in our palm As our heart is at having it. …

By Nora McClellan I am the rain that falls from the sky No drop of water is exactly the same There’s one for every one Of my worries, fears, insecurities My obsessions and compulsions Each nightmare inside my mind Is its own raindrop And when they fall together They form a storm And that’s who …

by Mackenzie Cartier You look around the desolate tube station. No one, as usual. You scan the emptiness trying to find someone to talk to as the cold seeps into your bones causing you to shiver. Loneliness invades your mind, reminding you how, silenced, you are forced to hide behind a polite smile while your …

By Jared Perrone Gardon BloodSkinned Valiameth-Draga, the first-born son of the latest generation of the Valiameth-Draga family. On top of the highest peak of the Spine of the World Mountains, he was born on what would be the coldest night in three centuries, the very fact he survived such a harsh birth was considered an …

by Deklan O’Connor (Response to Hannibal 2013) I am the mongoose you want Underneath the house Waiting for the snakes to slither by I eat the squirrels I eat the birds I eat the frogs and mice I am the mongoose you have Underneath your house Making friends with the snakes slithering by I fall …

by Michelle Loum I heard that if you pray to the universe, It will offer you the honey blue skies.   You’ll see clouds twirling, Awaiting your presence, waiting for you to realize, that you are enough.   –    You are fair enough. –    You are good enough.   You don’t even have to try,   Just …

by MJ Bujold I stood back and scanned the beach left and right. There were lots of cute girls there on that hot July morning, in 1967, but I didn’t want to be there. My cousin Dickie was turning 16 and the family was holding a beach party. My 16th was next month and I only agreed …

by Ken Brown

by Rae Miller As I hold the long rubber handle in my right hand And use my left to clip in a new cartridge of blades, I am hit With the Weight Of everything it took To get me standing here On a Thursday morning, preparing to shave my sideburns and trim my beard – …

by Rae Miller I loved the eagerness of the wash on the line in the summer morning, The legs of my linen trousers reaching upwards in the breeze – Prepared to run with me, as far as I asked them to. For they knew the freedom that came With the mildness of the weather, With …

by Mathias Silva

Ken Brown

by Mackenzie Cartier We danced in the rain     As it washed away our innocence We kissed each other     As if we would die tomorrow     We embraced tightly     As we molded into one another We laughed at ourselves in mirrors     As our fractured selves smiled back We yelled at each other …

By Kenneth Brown

by Deklan O’Connor (Inspired by Andrea Gibson’s “Maybe I Need You”) I pulled a fur off my sweater and screamed ‘That is so beautiful! It could kill a man’ And he probably could His claws are about yea big He was born right when my other died She was the same age as me and …

MJ Bujold’s Gallery

by Gina Guerra I am the ideal woman.     “What a delight to teach!”     “You can just tell she’ll grow up to be a beauty!”     “Such a sweet, reserved young lady.”     “So good at cooking already? You’ll make someone a happy husband someday.”     A delight to teach because I do as …

by M.J. Bujold Every life matters