By Penny Nolte I climb concrete steps gripping the rusty iron railing, smiling when I find Dad’s note pinned to the door. “We’re out on a call now, but come in! Feel free to look around.” His phone number is shared at the bottom just in case other visitors happen to drop by. Pushing the heavy … Continue reading Community Attic
Pancakes For The Universe
By Ella Andreasen Our cosmic understanding is a stream of events that transcends time and challenges everything that you previously believed to be true. You all have spent decades studying us, and yet, what is understood is nothing. What you’ve come to know is the physical. What you don’t understand is everything that lies in … Continue reading Pancakes For The Universe
The Nevada Side
By Miranda R. Carter For some time, in an earlier America, the Sierra Nevada Mountains were viewed as the final brutal barrier to the American Dream, the skeleton key to the West. Though today’s modern passes—Carson, Spooner, etc.—are tightly wound, rimming a shale skyline, they are contrastingly travelable trails from the blue corazón of Lake … Continue reading The Nevada Side
Welcome to America
By John A. Tures “Colonel Martin Carmichael, much has been written about your heroics at the end of the Vietnam War, rescuing so many Americans and Vietnamese,” the reporter from The Washington Morning Herald began. “I just have to know—where did your courage and sense of duty come from, sir? Why were you willing to … Continue reading Welcome to America
Humidity
By Zary Fekete In July the air was thick enough to push back. You and I stood in it, early, before the sun arrived like a loud, brash fire. At dawn the corn leaves were still wet and sharp at the edges. Our shirts soaked through in a quiet, even kind of way…cold at first … Continue reading Humidity
Brighton Beach Daydreams
By Maria Odessky Rosen The usually pure solid tones of Deep Forest are adulterated in this 13th floor apartment of the Trump Village projects in Brighton Beach. The music is polluted, and so are my thoughts. The lyrics of “Martha’s Song” are distorted by the cacophonous clattering of a passing D train. I push in … Continue reading Brighton Beach Daydreams
Puddle Love
By Duane Anderson The weather change was a welcomed change,one from negative degrees to one of mid-sixtiescausing the snow to melt,the formation of puddles,and flowing streams into the streets,just what two little boys were waiting foras they rode their strider bike and peddle carthrough the water,loving every minute of it,not missing a single puddle of … Continue reading Puddle Love
Blue
By Nancy Stephan It’s the gloomy harvest goldthat swallows an entire houseon a hot boring summer daywhen your mom won’t get out of bedeven though it’s two in the afternoonand the square-faced fan has been blowingits hot breath across her face since nine last night.Never mind that you crossed Grant Streeton your bike and spent … Continue reading Blue
East of Midnight
By Benjamin Karren School’s eulogy crackles in trillium-laced mountain air—twenty fence posts down a dirt road, a cremationfor chemistry finals and college rejection letters,a black Camaro thrumming Stairway to Heavengasoline-drenched cliques ignited by graduation. My burned CDs and letterman jacket obsolete—we won’t be remembered after tomorrow.My scorched pep rally speech, charred saxophone solo,engulfed chess positions … Continue reading East of Midnight
Three Little Things
By Anna Seidman In my traditionThe world is sustained by three thingsTruth, justice and peaceBut if “truth” includes the infinite experiences, thoughts and realitiesOf every living thing“Justice” means eight billion conceptsOf right and wrongAnd “peace” is something we all believe in,Until it gets in the way of everything else we believe in,Then it doesn’t fit … Continue reading Three Little Things
Academy of the Heart And Mind 