By: Mayesha Islam Abanti The rays of sun, never so pallid before.I gaze, I gaze at the world outside. Timeless and tormenting.My mother is drying her tears of glum as she boils water in the kitchen.“Dear God, fix my weary…

By: Jim Bates Thought disposing thought.Good memories forgotten.Greenhouse gases proliferating.Grey mood developing.Days seemingly numbered.Meaning is lost until tomorrow,When it begins again.Belly button starring into the abyss.Wake up now!Wake up, Fate cries out,Before you’ve lost yourself,This one chance you’ll ever haveTo…

By: David Pike Skies Of Westerhope The dream was that the hay bales would take you,To go building skiesBeyond their fields in a black and white photographOf yourself with the lure of that distanceOver thereWhere you were told you could…

By: Michael Pollentine Teacher I didn’t steal the fucking cow.Is what I wish I had said.But,I was four years old.I was gentle.I was in shock.Shock, that I was not allowed to state my case,That my friend went and toldIgnoring my…

By: Madhalasa Iyer penny wise, pound foolish A penny somersaults,crash-dives over its head,and lands flat on my palm. Heads: remember.Tails: forget. Lincoln stares at me.Four days and Four years ago.remember.the penny decides my fate,and my palm secures it. ### penny…

By: Robert Lesher Last Day1You would talkAnd breathe out.I would breathe in,Let my wordsFall intoMy stomachAs both of usListenedTo the rain outside. On such daysThe cats cuddledOn the crochet rugIn front of the stove,And the recordsOn the turntablePlayedUp the hallFrom…

By: Mohammad Jashim Uddin Most Westerners judge the Prophet Muhammad through the prism of Islamic extremism. After all, someone who inspires such rabid fundamentalism must have himself been a wild-eyed zealot. But the truth is, at least as told by…

By: Ray Cicetti Goldfinch On the Audubon trailI saw the goldfinch, dead,his black winged body broken neara thicket of thistle and sparse grass.The olive brown female abovecalled out, to distract me.And I remembered another Julywhen I got the call about…

By: Harvey Huddleston English came easily to Roman, as had the language of every country he’d lived in.  Moving in his youth from one country of the Russian Steppes to the next, he’d picked up the Tajik, Uzbeki and Kazak,…

By: Roliena Slingerland  “Can you come home for a bit?” Mother’s voice crackles on the other end of the phone. “I can’t.” The quickness of her lie startles even Gretta. Coming home is not the first choice these days. She…