By: Lynn White Players The orchestra are tuned upready in their uniformblack costumesdressed so asnot to distractfrom the musicor the on stage dramadressed for invisibility. And those on stage are dressedfor the parts they’re playing,dressed for performancedressed to be noticeddressed…

By: Christopher Johnson We’re walking through the Cook County Forest Preserves,The Palos Preserves,Which sprawl southwest of Chicago,Like a beastly wilderness of hidden flora and fauna.The path humps up and down like the tail of a dragon—A trail benighted and spooked,…

by: Mohammad Jashim Uddin This morning somehow I felt lonely as I could not pay my concentration anywhere else. Then I was listening to Rabi Tagore’s ‘If no one comes to hear your call, then go alone./ Let’s go alone,…

By: Edwin Olu Bestman verily I say unto you/love should be a democracy/of the people/ by the people/ & for the people these are truths/stolen from the lips of a broken pavement/its smile trapped in cobwebs I am writing for…

By: Frank William Finney  Little Eden Our little oasis betweencondos and traffic sheltering shades ofgreen and grey. You’re under the creepersscanning the skyline. I’m in the doghousehowling as usual. We’ll keep our distanceWe’ll keep our vows till either one of…

By: Harman Burgess George was crouched in the bushes, staring at the backpack lying on the path in front of him. Not so much at the unconscious girl next to it—he wasn’t hungry enough to try his hand at cannibalism—but…

By: Allan Lake My adult children live far away.Their mother remarried. Dead relsring bells while those living send annualBD greetings on F-book that I don’t Like.Bravo. Bingo. Bangshangalingo.Would not change a thingo, Ringo.Old hometown may look the samebut I never…

By: Francine Rodriguez He didn’t come around that often.  By the time I was old enough to figure that out I realized it was always around the time my mother got her welfare check, the first and the fifteenth of…

By: T.R. Healy      Lowell Barker paused in front of the door of his apartment for a minute, carefully adjusting the pale blue surgical mask across his mouth, then opened the door and started down the steps.  He moved cautiously,…

By: Michael Casey If you’d asked me last year how I thought 2020 would play out my answer would have been way off the mark. Other than the pandemic, one thing I wouldn’t have anticipated was my trip to India….