what is love?I asked my mother once, on a cloudyafternoon. She was scrubbing a plain,white shirt with her thin, cold hands–rough like the powdered detergent shebought from the dollar store with atoonie she found in between the seatsof the late-night bus, she would taketo go home after a day of scrubbingtoilets and mopping floors withContinue reading “what is love? A poem by Mari Angelica Galangco”
Author Archives: darcie friesen hossack
2 poems by Rhonda Melanson
After The Egg Comes Sunshine And Morei)I flip the memory, over and over. The easy lesson of eggs.Poached, Grandma used to make. A white blob, strugglingto stay afloat. Squiggly tentacles paddling anxiously in simmeringocean. Pathetic, to some people. How its tiny trauma bubbles, splashing onto the fire.My own hot mess crying. I’m so hungry! Eat!Continue reading “2 poems by Rhonda Melanson”
Writer’s Block. A poem by Marthese Fenech
Writer’s BlockTea leaves scattered,jasmine across the tableThe scent of plumeriaswirlingAn open notebookEmptyA glint of sunlightA blank pageOld scarsBleeding Return to Journal Marthese Fenech is the number one bestselling author of epic historical novels set in sixteenth-century Malta and Turkey. She has also written the pilot episode of a television series based on her books. ResearchContinue reading “Writer’s Block. A poem by Marthese Fenech”
3 poems by Mykyta Ryzhykh
***You can hope you never get cancerYou may not understand how you can lose your left legYou can trust that your daughter won’t strangle you in the middle of the nightOne may consider the Holocaust unthinkable, but thoughts are only an imprint of matterEverything will happen one dayEverything will happen again one dayAnd everything willContinue reading “3 poems by Mykyta Ryzhykh”
A Single Leaf. A poem by Josephine LoRe
A Single Leafthis poem is a leaf falling from a treethis poem is the stillness after the last echo soundsthe pause between an exhalation and the next inhalethis poem is gravel embedded into kneean offering of thanks for a crust of week-old bread this poem is the rumble of armoured trucksa deluge of debristhis poemContinue reading “A Single Leaf. A poem by Josephine LoRe”
3 poems by CS Venable
First They Came, An Elegy for Hind Rajab”Six-year-old Hind Rajab spent three hours on the phone with Palestinian emergency services, crying for help, stranded in a car under Israeli fire in Gaza. Her relatives were killed while trying to escape. Twelve days later, she was found dead. What happened after Hind’s phone line went dark?”Continue reading “3 poems by CS Venable”
2 poems by Poet in Residence Mansour Noorbakhsh
And into your ears only I need to lurk rather than walk. I’m forced to lurk if I am still thinking of you. We were content to read a poem aloud. And to an inhalation of a loud laugh. We have been forced to remain silent, in honor of the generic products’ anthem. Wine doesn’tContinue reading “2 poems by Poet in Residence Mansour Noorbakhsh”
3 poems by D. R. James
If god were gentleLet us believe in a strong god,who makes the oceansroar and the wind crack about our ears…For we are envious of this, and tobelieve in a gentle god,therefore, does not become us.—John Haines, “Pictures and Parables, IV” But if god were gentle, here’s what would become us: bluest sky, the sun-warmed porch,Continue reading “3 poems by D. R. James”
2 poems by Peter Mladinic
A Green LeafA green leaf of a Dutch elmlooks nothing like a safety pin.A branch of the blue spruce out my window, a bristled branch looks like a cylinder brush.The closed pin holds up a diaper. The leaf sways in the wind, on a branch above a river moving on, like hands of a clock. SqueakTheyContinue reading “2 poems by Peter Mladinic”
3 poems by Tom Pennacchini
A good clean breakrealities routine’s are a stone crusherall of itthe jobsthe relationshipsthe strivingthe failingthe achievements (I’m guessing)and more begets moreall the do’s of you hafeta doyou can get tired beyond exhaustiontired of your selfyour thoughts (if you are inclined to that sort of thing)and relief is much neededsome quiet a long walk to theContinue reading “3 poems by Tom Pennacchini”
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