Vacations are great, but . . . by Emily Littlewood

Photo of beach at dawn, with pink and purples in sky and reflecting off water
 

We are going on the trip of a lifetime and the two parts of my personality are at war. Anxiety/control vs. procrastination/let it ride. It’s really fun. To celebrate our twentieth wedding anniversary, the husband and I are going back to the Isle of Man, for the annual TT motorcycle races. We have a year to plan everything; unfortunately all this time means there’s plenty of opportunity for things to go wrong and for changes to have to be made. So I take a few breaths and try to focus on something else, anything else … Continue reading Vacations are great, but . . . by Emily Littlewood

Talk To Strangers by Bree Luck

Photo of two women, smiling and holding drinks
 

Two years ago, in the pocket of time between Thanksgiving and the onslaught of holiday chaos, I spent a week with my grandmother, Mimi, at her home on St. Simons Island. She had been feeling a little off—her words, not mine—and welcomed the company. Under her astute and vigilant direction, I cooked her favorite dinners, recorded a podcast episode about her life, and rubbed her feet while we watched TV procedurals in the evenings. Mostly, she rested. But on Thursday she got antsy. She wanted to go out to dinner. So we did. We ended … Continue reading Talk To Strangers by Bree Luck

Don’t Arrive Before You Get There by Deborah M. Prum

Photo of three ambiguous, differently colored shapes of people
 

My writing mantra used to be, Fine is good enough. I made sure whatever I sent out was the best it could be. However, I worked fulltime and was the primary caretaker for three children. When I finished a manuscript, I checked for issues, then hit “send” before anyone came down with croup, required a ride to music lessons, or needed four zillion forms signed. I never lingered at the finish line, which meant some manuscripts went out not quite fully polished. You’ve heard of the tyranny of the urgent? Those years, I happened to … Continue reading Don’t Arrive Before You Get There by Deborah M. Prum

‘Round Midnight by Terry Huff

Photo of hands playing a piano
 

                                                     for Thelonious Monk I have a table for one at The Five Spot Cafe. Monk is on stage with Miles Davis and Art Blakey. No one in his band disturbs the jazz genius, or waits for him to speak to them when his mood is no brighter than his E Flat Minor. His melodies are the words his black fingers play on black and white keys for a black and white crowd, with a band always ready to follow Monk’s lead. He may change a play at the line of scrimmage, sending Blakey in … Continue reading ‘Round Midnight by Terry Huff

On Writing A Condolence Letter by Trudy Hale

Photo of crows sitting atop a fence
 

I find it hard to write a condolence letter, not a note, but a letter. And three condolence letters wait for me. They sit like black crows on a fence, cawing, scolding. I delay, stall, guilt-gnawed and sometimes, I admit, never write the letter in time. Instead, I email or call. Not the same! My fear is that my condolence will be a minefield of cliches. I saved a letter from the Palliative Care Social Services counselor at the Motion Picture and Television Home sent after my husband died five years ago. I remembered it … Continue reading On Writing A Condolence Letter by Trudy Hale

Playing Mahler at Minus Twenty by Katrin Talbot

Photo of woman looking out from bridge
 

Windchill, the minor key that blows in with the horns Tremolo, a shimmer of ice, the roads we drive to rehearsal Crunchy German, heftig, Plötzlich, the sounds of our boots on the snow towards the hall Six flats, icicles hanging by the wall of clef The thaw of Adagietto— sehr langsam open-heart surgery And, on the way to the garage, our tears freezing for this unfathomable life. Australian-born Katrin Talbot’s collection The Devil Orders A Latte was just released from Fernwood Press and The Square Footage of Awe is forthcoming from Kelsay Books. Falling Asleep … Continue reading Playing Mahler at Minus Twenty by Katrin Talbot

Finding Isabella by Sharon Perkins Ackerman

Song thrush perched on branch
 

It is two weeks past Mother’s Day, late afternoon, when I see a doe on the neighboring pasture. Light slices across the grass from its peach horizon, nearly blinding. Around the fringes of haze, I see there is also a tiny fawn with noodle-like legs behind the doe, and a few feet away, the neighbor’s small bulldog bluff-barking the two of them. The doe does something that I’ve never seen her do before in her elegant tiptoe strolls—she lifts one leg and hooves the ground, then the other leg, same motion. Her head thrusts forward … Continue reading Finding Isabella by Sharon Perkins Ackerman

Space Junk by Claire Scott

black human silhouette against swirls of stars at night
 

……………………………………………..Collision risks are growing every year ……………………………………………..as the number of objects in orbit ……………………………………………..around Earth proliferate. ………………………………………………………………………—CNN How can prayers make it through 130 million pieces of space junk careening and colliding at 18,000 miles per hour in an orbital graveyard bits of broken satellites, the remains of booster rockets and wreckage from weapons tests As violence spreads like head lice more and more prayers swirl the skies jostling and jiggling to make it to heaven and petition the Lord please one night without sirens ………….wailing us awake let my daughter learn to walk ………….on … Continue reading Space Junk by Claire Scott

The Spirit Room by Claire Massey


 

The spirit room is cold, not morgue-cold but goosebump chilly from October on. Maddie zips her hoodie and pulls the under-desk heater dangerously close to the soles of her dying Nikes. There’s a hole forming above her big, left toe and if she smells melting rubber, there will be a bigger hole in her budget. New shoes will have to get in line. The positions she had tried for, production artist, illustrator, assistant gallery curator, never materialized, and she’s stuck in the basement of the Sabine River precinct as a bottom-dwelling, part-time police sketch artist, … Continue reading The Spirit Room by Claire Massey

A Confession by Fred Wilbur

Photo of woods and blue ridge mountains
 

We usually consider mea culpas as good things, honest actions, purges of guilt, wiping clean the chalk smudged slates (to start again.) We want to regain a certain state of innocence, of internal peace. A sincere confession seems more purposeful than an everyday apology, a “sorry” which has become almost a place word in auto-fill conversations. So, what transgression(s) prompt me to spill my guts? Throughout my writing years, I have made notes on how I think poetry works (or doesn’t) along the lines of academic poets who write how-to books on how-to write poetry. … Continue reading A Confession by Fred Wilbur

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