Editorial Issue #16: What If? April 30, 2025 Letter from the Editor: Making It Count by Tracy Granzyk recently received a fundraiser request for an old high school friend and her husband, who are each receiving treatment for cancer at the same time. They are parents to three young people, and my friend was one of those people I remember as always having a dimpled smile on her face and a glint in her eyes. ...
Read MorePoetry Issue #16: What If? April 30, 2025 Two Poems by Susan Shea Helping Me Into the Newness When we thought it was just a cold, before anyone knew there was such a thing as COVID pushing its way into the world, my coughing sent my man out of the room; but my little beast Max evolved from feline to angel saint. He couldn’t look away from my gasps, laying by my side all night, looking at me, letting his eyes carry the warmth ...
Read MoreEditorial Issue #16: Harmony April 30, 2025 Letter from the Poetry Editor: From the Side of A Mountain by Stephen Granzyk hen 2025 comes to a close, it will mark seven years PSM has been up and running, and by then I will have turned 80. Along with the privilege and great rewards of editing poetry for this literary health care journal, I have been navigating aging and its challenges. After reading all the poetry that ...
Read MoreFiction Issue #16: What If? April 30, 2025 Tangerine Strands by Alfredo Salvatore Arcilesi he little girl and boy were screaming. Not the bad screaming. Not Mia’s screaming. Lucretia stood in the outer schoolyard, looking through the fence that separated her from the scene of the crime she had committed two months prior. Of all the kids packed into the limited pen designated for kindergarten students, her eyes and ears couldn’t help but track the running, laughing—For now, ...
Read MoreFiction Issue #16: What If? April 30, 2025 Alternative Medicine Inspired by "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" by Liz deBeer ust relax.” A man wearing a white coat presses his stethoscope to Milly Ward’s chest. “Take a deep breath, hold it, release.” He nods and pivots toward the door. “A tech will draw your blood. After that, I’ll discuss your MRI results.” When the door clicks shut, Milly exhales, annoyed. Who’s relaxed in a doctor’s ...
Read MoreFiction Issue #16: What If? April 30, 2025 How We Got Here by Latasha DeStouet illow readjusted the blanket around the little boy's face several times before her eyes fixed on the entrance to Thomas Jefferson Hospital where she had given birth twelve days before. A valet dashed between cars, opening and closing doors, taking tips, and retrieving keys to parked cars. She decided that she would leave Warren at the entrance, in his car ...
Read MoreFiction Issue #16: What If? April 30, 2025 Hospital Story by C. Henry Stevens verybody stand clear!” the doctor ordered, raising her hands, backing away from my father, “Administering shock in 3… 2… 1…” Boom! His chest leapt off the bed and slammed back down, jiggling the wires. Sightless eyes, still half open, stared at the ceiling. His neck muscles were convulsing around the side of his throat. Mouth gaping. And then he began to moan. It ...
Read MoreFiction Issue #16: What If? April 30, 2025 Walking Alone by Shanti Chandrasekhar o restrain my emotions before your open casket was hard enough, and your son I just met said, “Mom loved you dearly. Always talked about you.” Then, “Your gift, that scarf from India? Her favorite.” Wrapped around your neck, the blue-and-black silk matched your dress. Ted gave me your email address after I had disclosed yet another diagnosis. “So we’d stop bugging him,” ...
Read MoreNonfiction Issue #16: What If? April 30, 2025 For the Clouds I Do Not Know by Hari Venkat t is once again my bathroom. Upon seeing the fake granite splitting along the corner of the sink, I realize that it’s the one from 2014. As is usual here, I am startled by the immediacy with which the coldness of the tile infects my legs through my heels. It is dark but for the slab of ...
Read MoreNonfiction Issue #16: What If? April 30, 2025 Terminators by Angela Townsend oth models are Terminators. Any rivalry is invalid. NASA’s instruments detect no difference in mettle between the T1D and the T2D. Both withstand severe seismic activity. Both pause in the grocery store to subtract sugar alcohols from total carbohydrates. But the world is still teething, and it gnaws on conflict. We pit red against blue, bread against cake, diabetic against diabetic. Type 1 gets sympathy. ...
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