Promise by Barbara Sullivan
Oct29

Promise by Barbara Sullivan

  “Promise” by Barbara Sullivan   Age is the great unseen divider of souls—each from the other and from its own former selves—and at the same time, it’s the one commonality that can be counted on: we have only to wait a while and we understand everyone.  Time both speeds up and elongates as one ages—maybe relativity is somehow at work—and I feel close to the people I have loved and lost in a new way as I pass...

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The Mirror by Lytton Bell
Oct29

The Mirror by Lytton Bell

  “The Mirror” by Lytton Bell   Look into the mirror and do not flinch You can see Death now rubbing her hands together spotted, wrinkled, bulging with veins engulfing every part of you without judgment   You’re a woman with no past always threading her needles on the first try a flurry of diet pills and designer jeans never to be all you might have been   You could be lost and not know it a castle with...

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Karma by Felicia Mitchell
Oct29

Karma by Felicia Mitchell

  “Karma” by Felicia Mitchell   Saving the sparrow whose small self is wound by wire may not save the cat half eaten by coyote. It may not save even me from myself, sorrow coiled around my heart like a copperhead. I love my cat. I love the coyote that tried to eat the cat. But I am sad about the cat, as sad as a woman crying. I know it is what it is, this snake that will strike or not strike, on any given day, no...

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Beginning the Journey by Ruth Thompson
Oct29

Beginning the Journey by Ruth Thompson

  “Beginning the Journey” by Ruth Thompson   Something is ended.    She launches the small paper boat of it out onto the ocean  and turns to the west.    To wade out through glittering and foam, to lie upon the deep,  to be a membrane between stars and mirrored stars.    Then when her throat is full of all the voices she can carry,  to turn and swim for shore.    To run back, crying messages...

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Why You’re Afraid of the Road by Charlotte Muse
Oct29

Why You’re Afraid of the Road by Charlotte Muse

  “Why You’re Afraid of the Road” by Charlotte Muse   There is room for one car, but what if the wheels miss and the car hangs over the edge with two tires spinning? You’d be moving frantically against the door, hoping to keep the balance or get out. Never would the yellow dust of the road seem so desirable; the blue sky so thin and threatening; and you a turned-over turtle, a blind bird! Or what if you...

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