Poetry: “Balackla” by Liana Sakelliou, trans. Don Schofield

The emperors vacationed at Balackla,
its palaces with springs
known for their fish
swimming in holy water […]

Prose: “Ten Last Photos and the distance.” by Kevin Danko

Ten last photos and the distance. He wore frayed khakis and a knit tie, the least formality for his work which he was sure he remembered. He must have had a coat but he found himself in inappropriate sandals, or worse, barefoot. He could only recognize himself from recollection, or maybe in the reflection of […]

Prose: “What is Wisdom?” by Frank Richards

1. A Person of Destiny Mr. Tsutomo Yamaguchi had almost reached the downtown train station when he realized he might have forgotten his travel pass. As he walked, he checked each of his suit pockets, but he already suspected, with a sinking feeling, that he’d left it at the office they had last visited. Without […]

poetry: “Who was and is and is to come” by Sam Ambler

WHO WAS AND IS AND IS TO COME I had flown in from halfway across the country for a family Labor Day reunion. I was tired and hungry. I stood in your open doorway. The sun, setting behind the Great Rocky Mountains, shed globules of light through the shimmering bay window surrounding your bed. I […]

Poetry: “The longest day” by DS Maolalaí

The longest day o unreachable evening – it’s summer now; quite hot, not quite the longest day, though that’s approaching. and these are the times you don’t want to be indoors, on a wooden chair inside a bedsit, scratching yourself and writing poems. if I could I would be down now next to the river, […]

Poetry: “Autumn in the park” by David Groulx

Autumn in Park We lay here on the grass, beneath October the leaves falling the leaves falling the sun driven, from our faces. Time moving naked across the trees. We lay here on the grass, beneath October the snow falling the snow falling the sun driven from our faces. autumn is parked upon us. […]

Poetry: “Sacred Traces” by Michael Shen

Sacred Traces We returned that cool autumn dayto bright flecks of yellowpeeking through verdant strokes,splashes of red soaking our eyes.Joe pie, jewel weed,Singing symphony of wildflowerspainted the meadow past the stream We savored our little worldfrom our perch on the porch.Yet there was a void.Our red hummingbird feeder was dry.We filled it with sweet waterand […]

Poetry: “Endings” by Lowell Jaeger

Endings I stood in the frigid blast of Januarylate afternoon. And witnessedthe backhoe manbackfill your grave. The wind had blown the pasturebare, the earth iced so deepthe shovel on the hoehad to carve and chip at itlike stone. And you lay stone-stiff amidsta cluster of boulders nearby,fetlocks flagging. Childrencalled — Patches! Patches! —though the children […]

Poetry: “First Lagrangian Point” by Binh Nguyen

First Lagrangian Point After all this world expands, I still carry you,You and your hydrogens, in the light’s decline.I call me insane, I call me unbearable, callow,And fence my bedroom with apologies.I thought I was good to have climbed this branch,That a flaming heart could do nothing but good,But bullets make survivors, not soldiers,And I […]

Poetry: “Inside the body museum” by Andrew Walker

entry fee

looping floss around the lame tooth

will lop it off, falling to the pile

like loose change—a mouth

is the entrance to all i am

willing to give you. the markings

on a lover’s neck share the mountains

and valleys on my own arm,

i have yet to taste any other part

of me.