POETRY: “PRAISE POEM TO SELF: A Sound Poem from Turkana” by Jacqueline Henry

Jackie! Here’s to you, girl!
To your Voice
Once so stifled, so
Afraid of its own sound
Never saying, “No, no. […]

POETRY: “Farmers’ Fourth, Bucks County, Pa., 1960” by Steve Myers

In kitchens the women
read Revelations,
lean toward black electric fans.
A screen door slams. Out back,
damp slips hang limp from […]

POETRY: “Your Knuckles” by Liz Kingsley

I hope you don’t mind that I’m holding your hand, dear sister-in-law,
I don’t want to hurt you. But these knuckles, I’d know them anywhere.
For such a delicate woman, your knuckles were always so wide, large, bony bumps.
The only large thing about you. I think this is the first time I’ve touched them. […]

POETRY: “STARTING WITH A MIRROR” by Kimberley K. Kelly

I spoke to the mirror
twisted my spine
it curved red ribbon
around a carousel
it cracked beneath […]

Poetry: “Velikiye Luki” by Michael Sandler

When arthritis made her wince, she muttered
the town name as metonym for a cold, crowded prison floor—
a journey, world war, and privations away
from the woman I knew: wizened in a faded dress
at her dining table in L.A., her magnifying […]

Poetry: “Raccoon” by Michael Lyle

I watch a raccoon wobble
like a drunk from a bar
in daylight, so maybe he’s rabid
or she is old and confused
too many seasons, litters, […]

Poetry: “After You Moved Out of the Upstairs Apartment” by Iris Litt

I hear footsteps on the stair but they’re not you, they’re indefinably lighter and they’re not coming here, they’re going somewhere else. On the other hand they do sound like you just enough to make me raise my head and listen awhile and smile. Iris Litt’s third book of poems, Snowbird, was published by Finishing […]

Poetry: “Skipping Stones” by Blake London

we stood beside a lake unmoving, flat stones in small palms, two boys with frozen tongues. the first stone flew and didn’t skip so much as sink. we watched, a spell unbroken. The second stone followed, then a third, a fourth, and soon you and I made each stone keep its beat, drumsticks on glassy […]

Poetry: “algae” by Joseph Felkers

August mud clings to our ankles like the skies just opened for a second. Didn’t plan on raining but a little slipped out so we can stop getting cuts on dry weeds and smelling cinnamon starch air dried like fourth grade. We are so tired of being in this month. It feels like bike […]

Poetry: “The Party” by Thom Young

the party started with guns in their mouths and a nice baby’s breath arrangement that seemed to play off her dress the vows said heard by those with knives in their eyes and a one way ticket when the part came to kiss the bride the Mothership arrived with a light they’d never known or […]