By Ebony Haywood Previously published in Five on the Fifth When my student, Cristina, told me that she lived next door to a cemetery, my ears perked. “A cemetery?” “Yeah. Sometimes it feels creepy.” Cristina is fifteen with eyes that are always alert and a ponytail that sweeps the air like a pendulum. She is … Continue reading A Patch of Green
After Bushfire
By Julie Holland Bushfire came through Evil as devil may be No thing, nor thought, spared Just a trail of black Shapes rising to ether To sapphire sky, to smoke and sour Young and tender wind, a calling to Green, that pulls life from ash Look at that Dad, said the child A rescue helicopter … Continue reading After Bushfire
The Landing Day
By J. P. Rizo Richard Cadmen, professor of Holistoric Reconstruction, Third Year, guided his class through the sandy trail leading to the beach. Now and then he had to stop, annoyed, to reprehend the lingerers who were picking little shell pieces. “Focus, gentlemen. We are not on a beach day with grandma. Henry, where the … Continue reading The Landing Day
Writers Block
By Pat Spencer As a life-long author of both fiction and nonfiction, I would never admit to suffering from writer’s block. But it’s fair to say I’m stymied. It’s not that my words are cumbersome or clumsy, falling short of what my story deserves. It is that I simply have no words. I sit so … Continue reading Writers Block
To My Hero and Other Poems
By Roselainie Panginuma Saidamin To My Hero To the woman who is worthy of my respect, You are the color of the garden of my paradise. A mother of five with a soft-enduring heart, Your love is wary and so is your sacrifice. To the woman who gives comfort and solace, You are the luminous … Continue reading To My Hero and Other Poems
Animated and Other Poems
By Susan Shea Animated Every week, at the library you filled shopping bags high with children's picture story books for me to drive home for you so we could go innocently grow up together in full color, away from the cemented melancholy I crawled through away from the parent-centered place where I wasn't seen or … Continue reading Animated and Other Poems
Cold Dark Ironies
By Brenda Mox He was born with something at odds inside a knot of vague darkness where he hides, cleared eyed as a wolf on the hunt. Brow dark and disturbed, a thunder headed runt with a raw reedy voice of outraged revenge which he spews forth from greyhound limbs. Sharp as a chip of … Continue reading Cold Dark Ironies
I Remember You
By Gretchen Keefer Officer Hayes watched the young man as Officer Krall relayed the news. He was just a kid, really, this boy who had so confidently invited the officers in out of the August heat and admitted there was no one else at home. Hayes saw disbelief, comprehension and grief cross the youth’s face … Continue reading I Remember You
Reflection
By Adam Ostaszewski The gentle hum of turbines lulled the passengers of the CW-48 space lift to sleep. One of them, Robert Smart, struggled with fatigue. He spent the first part of the journey to the Finesia space station studying the report prepared by the investigators. Torn from his comfortable bed at half past five, … Continue reading Reflection
The Last Day I Saw Mother
By Chinelo Synclaire The journey home felt insufferably long. I sat by the window inside the bus examining the landscape and the buildings, trying hard to suppress my anger each time the driver stopped to pick a new passenger. My school bag sat huddled between my legs and inside it was the A4 paper that … Continue reading The Last Day I Saw Mother
Academy of the Heart And Mind 