Arrivals and Departures. She squeezed her belly out from behind the wheel.The red and white Ford matched their mobile home.“Que Sera,” sang her namesake on the radio.“Let’s hope”, she muttered, swinging to the screen door. She hears him swing the Le Sabre into the garage.The motorized door closes behind him.Is this the last time her…
Yuri Kageyama
The Afterlife . The mass of meatIn a heap like a grave,Cold, stillAmid wafting incense,The moans and chants of mourning,Eyes closed, hands claspedFrozen in motion,I lose interest:Those motions of burial and propriety,Those greetings, sympathy, tears;He is no longer there,Not in that body,Twitching twisting growling in incoherence,More and more silentOver the years,He is no longer there:At…
Book Review: Alleys Are Filled with Future Alphabets: Selected Poems by Gopal Lahiri
Book Title: Alleys Are Filled with Future Alphabets: Selected PoemsAuthor: Gopal LahiriPublisher: Rubric Publishing, IndiaDate of Publication: January 2021ISBN #: 978-9391431037Reviewer: Meenakshi Mohan Let the Melodies of Lahiri’s Words Resonate Far and Beyond We remain there: listening to rain Falling from the tall trees … All night the raindrops weave love and light. (Raindrops…
Book Review: Chambal Revisited by Nabanita Sengupta
Book Title: Chambal RevisitedAuthor: Nabanita SenguptaPublisher: Hawakal Publishers, IndiaDate of Publication: February 2022ISBN #: 978-9391431037Reviewer: Dr. Sutanuka Ghosh Roy Enigmatic Chambal The name “Chambal” has a magnetic pull because of the element of drama in it and it immediately pulls us to the images of dacoits on horses, terror, and blood-cuddling violence in our…
The Flower Lady, by Jonathan B. Ferrini
Word spread throughout town a “Flower Lady” was wondering about giving out flowers to strangers… “The Flores Family Flower Shop” was founded by my grandfather at a road side stand and grew to become a fifty-year-old favorite within San Diego. I drive the truck to the wholesale flower market at 4:30 in the morning six…
Hiram Larew
What Says. Do but don’t can learn you —When every by-its-mights backfires you or if clobber is the ways the days have of tendering upWell then just you double get …
Julie A. Dickson
Only While I Sleep . 1Float, nourished maternally,tiny hands poised – clasp,release, relaxed in sleepuntil it’s time to emerge. 2Slumber deep beneathblanket of snow, furry onesinsulated from wind, tuckedinto a nest of downy softness. 3Milk-drunk litter lies supineagainst warm body, sleepsoundly, mewling ceases,sated until the next suckling. 4Dormant roots in quietude,nourished, waiting for springsun to…
Layla Lenhardt
Is It Love or Mourning? . In the painting, they stand tallagainst the trees, their limbsjust as long. Her black gown.His top hat. Their arms entwinedlike the ivy vines under theirfeet. I can’t see their faces,but some part of me is overcomewith inexplicable grief. Grief doesn’t always spawnfrom death. Sometimes,often times, grief isof your…
Devika Mathur
Multiple Days of Grief . A vague sniff that lingersafter my chores of daytime and night,I do not sit or restbut multiple in thousandswhere my hands produce a silent conversation of Godsbetween the tongue of a whore and a saint,a barbed wire,a quiet, huge wound.At days, I am as bright as a candlelight,the darkness only…
Carrie Magness Radna
Blue (a Ghazal) . Am dreaming of eggs laid by blue-birds; am seeing the Mediterranean sea when I close my eyes—the Italian azure bluecolor calls me again, in hidden caves & pools, & this would never make me feel blue.Happiness to me feels like fluffy, silver feathers drifting lazily in the pines, touching the bluesky…
Catherine A. Coundjeris
Treehouse A treehouse is a dream builder.A place where you can while awaythe hours that engineer the day.Study wild things like tree creepers. Listen to the serene woodland songs.Breathe in the estuary scent.Forget the troubles and the wrongs.Focus on the messages sent by garrulous herons in the reeds.Industrious squirrels dodging hawks.Trees rustling to and…
Creative Activism in Words and Action: Writers & Activists at the United Nations
‘Creative Activism in Words and Action’ Writers and Activists at the United Nations Presented by Life and Legends at 2022 AWP Date: Friday, March 25, 2022Time: 10:35 AM–11:35 AM ETLocation: #AWP22 Virtual Conference Platform . Panelists Rachel Pittman, Christopher Merrill, Kalpna Singh-Chitnis, Dunya Mikhail, Megha Sood ModeratorKalpna Singh-Chitnis PROGRAM OUTLINE