By: George Freek A MATTER OF PRIORITIES (After Mei Yao Chen) Things that once matteredNow matter to meless than a bowl of rice.Stars like insectsspin across the sky,but do they even exist?Sparrows hop from branchto branch with a purpose.They don’t…

By: Ruth Deming After my final sip of awful generic coffee, I donned my cowboy hat with latch at bottom so it wouldn’t topple off, and set out to walk the hilly block. Assiduously I avoided Bob, “the quiet man,”…

By: Raymond Greiner Walking the aisles of the local farm and feed store I read the various labels on the multiple feed bags; sweet stuff for horses, scratch grain for chickens, meat bird, layer crumbles, chick starter and at the…

By: Raymond Greiner Myrna Davis was born in 1950 into a middle class family and raised in a mid-sized, mid-western town.  Myrna was an exceptionally beautiful child a direct genetic influence of her mother, who was stunningly beautiful.  Myrna’s beauty…

By: J.K. Durick This Fall After reaching its peak the trees unleaf, filllawns and baskets, whole afternoons givenover to clean up. The boys next door makepiles, stacked just right for jumping, the joyof loud voices greets this world of wanwoodleafmeal…

By: Cameron Crosby LAWNMOWER MAN He sits on the throne of his lawnmower Like it’s a brand new Cadillac Placing a cigarette between his lips Turning it on, letting it roar Smoke billows from his mouth And the mower, Barbed…

By: Mary Grimm I was someone else, a younger woman who was polite and shy. I was on a family vacation except it was not my family I was looking for a dentist but he had moved out and his…

By: David R. Topper I’ve known her for over a year. A whole year. But I never thought about her that way. Well, really, I hardly ever thought about her at all. Except when I saw her in the store….

By: Meghan Doran   It PoursWhen it rains grandma says hey is for horses and a watched pot never boils and needs must and grandpa says Thomas Jefferson was a deist and Ted Kennedy was a sonofabitch and he summons the…

By: Jim Bates Walking peaceful woodsSurrounded by Nature’s giftsProfound sense of joy. Unrelenting WindRoaring through an autumn nightA freight train racing. Calm November dayLast leaves drift softly landingLightly like feathers. Fresh snow transformingBrown ground to a wonderlandSo cheerful and bright.