By: J.D. Diaz After closing, when all the diners and most of the staff were gone and he was done cleaning his station and knives, he helped Javier with the dishes and mopping the floor. They had a smoke by…
By: Melissa Graham I wait again.I am not your expectations.I wait for you to feel me, hear meI wait for you to seenot my hairnot my skinbut the soul that lives within.I am not unbreakableI am not replaceableSomeday you will…
By: Jim Brosnan Postcard from a Forgotten Town I wrote phrases,fragmentsof thought,so manymiles awayas I recalledtrain whistlesbreakingevening silenceand headlightson the nearbystretchesof highwaypassing overwinding hillsas I now watchlingering embersleapfrom a fireplaceas snowflakestumbleacross the lawn. ### Landscape of Reminders Sleet splattersthe windshieldof…
By: Douglas K Currier Residential care Day 99 Long-term residential care smells of death:incontinence, the odor of liniment, industrial disinfectant,moth balls, menthol, old clothes, meds,and the liquid, pervasive smells of the cafeteria.I already lack the small-motor skills to take pills….
By: Shaan Sood We Should Have Let Go: Behind our blue skiesA photograph faded from touchIts incandescent glow of beforeHiddenOh, forgotten Holding grains of sandThat were filled with the wordsSaid through murky waterWe should have held tighterWe should have let go…
By: Dr. Piku Chowdhury The crouching fluffy feline graceWould eye me with some carelessnessThe frisky fallow fright of sparrowIn my narrow harrowed pace.Constant feline surveillanceOn my stealthy subsistenceTrying to scrape some rhyme or senseOff the tacky correctness.Between kitty on the…
By: David Francis Home When I went back to my ancestral homeI put on my old clothesthey were still there hangingthree years had come and gone I went through all my belongingsI didn’t know I’d find those old photographshalf-expecting to…
By: Alethea Jimison Little Bird Get Inside Your Cage Children are meant to be seen- not heard. The adults tell us that they value our voices and yet shut us down when we speak without compliance. I am a separate…
By: Ram Govardhan Every revolt,modest or armed, matters.Every fight can’t placatethe plights, or restore the rights.Every resistance can’tturn into a revolution, orforce a coup d’état, orupset the status quo.At times, can’teven scream a defiance.At times, can’teven prove its existencedreading its…
By Ruth Z. Deming Finally I was ready to visit my relatives in my home town of Cleveland, Ohio. We were in a heat wave but I refused to let that stop me. As Rabbi Hillel said, “If not now,…