By Jacqueline McAleer the shining I can see your hands from across the cemetery(I always knew we were similar Wandering insomniacs in the moonlight Not upset, just disturbed)But what I can’t reason Is how they came to be so red, so bright I’d kill for hands that proud Even among all these dead things, lives … Continue reading the shining and Other Poems
We, the Inns
By Sahar Imteyaz History—she is partial.She remembers the travellers,The roads they walked,Their journeys’ beginnings And their journeys’ ends.But, we, the Inns—Are forgotten.You find us on every road—On plain, smooth roadsAnd dusty, broken roads.Travellers cross their thresholdsAssured in their heartsOf finding us on the way—The balm of vigour for wearied limbs.Yes, we, the Inns,Forgotten as we … Continue reading We, the Inns
Beneath the Gingko Tree
By Kazumi Hayashi When I say Tokyo, what do you see? The crosswalk stop light turns green, the stagnant crowd suddenly engulfs you in motion, from one step-a-second to five. The LCD screens with loud advertisements, you don’t need another brightening cream, but after those few seconds, maybe you do need a brightening cream. Move … Continue reading Beneath the Gingko Tree
Boxcar Poet
By Alan Ford Riding the rails in a freight traina steel door slides back.But love doesn’t.Just the pendulum of the pastsliding to behind him.He’s a boxcar poet.His life is like an unwritten verse,a truth never told.Invisible to historyhe’s an elegy to a life still lived.A landscape caked with dirt and dustrushes past him.But there is … Continue reading Boxcar Poet
Selflessness Shows Love
By Michaela Dimitrov Work ends, and Michaela walks a quick 20 minutes to her boyfriend, LJ’s, house. She hates walking alone in the dark, so she decides to stay on a call with LJ to keep her company. It’s not the same, but it’s better than nothing. They begin talking about each other's days. She … Continue reading Selflessness Shows Love
Isolation
By Diana Becket Silence is heavy in the living space. She speaks aloud and jumps to hear her voice in an empty room lit by sunlight filtered through blinds thick with dust and grease. Mottled shadows merge the outline of the stairwell and throw patterns over photos of people she once knew, no longer remembers … Continue reading Isolation
Safe Passage at the Symphony
By Alan Swope While listening to “Night on Bald Mountain” performed by the San Francisco Symphony The hall a Roman galley pulled by rowing bows, guided by the conductor’s baton. Its hull a haven from a world of losses. Billows of sound surge toward, around the silver-haired listeners as they plunge through timeless waters. So … Continue reading Safe Passage at the Symphony
Black Orphaned Boy
By Nwokoye Emmanuel Maduabuchi Yesterday when I returned from tears, My Mum told me of the Land of no return. With tears she recalled that day, when the bright dawn merged with the darkened mist; As the Manuelita embarked on a voyage that now made me a ‘Black Orphaned Boy’. “Kiss with tears its shores”, … Continue reading Black Orphaned Boy
No Different Than a Frog
By Christine Benton Criswell Originally published in Jimson Weeds. Has also appeared in Down in the Dirt and Impspired In front of me were two heavy, ancient-looking, wooden doors, and beyond them—the thing I dreaded most about becoming a doctor. My heart was pounding so hard I could hardly hear the voices around me. I’d … Continue reading No Different Than a Frog
Turns out I wasn’t really depressed, I was just lonely and bored
By Grace Sinkins I went off my meds that should’ve never been prescribed to me, Just a few weeks after I saw my dead grandpa in the gas station parking lot. Now I have clarity and I know what he thinks of me, But I can’t for the life of me remember any of my … Continue reading Turns out I wasn’t really depressed, I was just lonely and bored
Academy of the Heart And Mind 