Nonfiction Issue #16: What If? April 30, 2025 I Left My Wife on Valentine's Day by Zoran Naumovski left my wife on Valentine’s Day. It was early that morning, but it wasn’t even morning yet. The goats were not yet bleating, and the roosters weren’t even crowing. Our bedroom was pitch-dark save for the faint ray of light emanating from the living room through the crack in our door. I leaned over, kissed her softly on ...
Read MoreNonfiction Issue #16: What If? April 30, 2025 The Hand of Nature by Sofia Mamakos y kindergarten teacher taught me that monarchs are the only butterflies that migrate, like birds. I pictured large groups of monarchs in flashes of orange and black escaping the winter cold, clustering in the crowed treetops of sunny Mexico. In my head, the scene was so beautiful. I was at Canterbury Park in Shakopee, Minnesota, a place my mom would ...
Read MoreNonfiction Issue #16: What If? April 30, 2025 What If We're Beautifully Wired Just the Way We Are? by Sara E. Golden he guilt of a mother of a child with disabilities is an endless scroll from the shaming sea. What if he hadn’t had colic? What if I had been stricter with my diet? What if I had been a more pristine artifact - a template from which to stamp the perfect child? Because life doesn’t work that ...
Read MoreNonfiction Issue #16: What If? April 30, 2025 Dear Driver by Kalani Padilla ear Driver, After the accident, many people came up to my car to see if I was okay. Yes, I reassured them. “Can anyone see my bag?” I asked. “It’s a small, rectangular leather purse. With a long strap.” Even though I was dangling inside my car, which itself lay on its side, so that both of us were fetal under the moon ...
Read MoreNonfiction Issue #16: What If? April 30, 2025 Break the Disease by Nancy Gilbert t happened on a Memorial Day weekend in Georgetown, Texas. I was vacationing with my husband, and we had fun things planned. First, I wanted to see my mother who lived in a small group home in Round Rock, just a few miles from Georgetown. Since she had fallen a few days before our arrival, we visited her in the hospital. On ...
Read MoreNonfiction Issue #16: What If? April 30, 2025 Unreliable Witness by Monica Edwards anuary 2, 2025 I am haunting you. Not because I am still inside of you. No, your surgeon took care of that. It's the possibility of me that haunts you. True, I was in your body and I am disquieting in my malignancy, but a lot of the fear I induce comes from bad PR as much as anything else. Because let’s be honest, ...
Read MorePoetry Issue #16: What If? April 30, 2025 Three Poems by Joe Bisicchia day-to-day operations if only the stock the blood the labs the sterilization the discharge the surveys the personalized health record the clinical outcomes the meaningful use we never forget if only in the middle of the critical integration amidst all the clinical navigation quality control everything clinical clinical the critical is critical if only the mergers and acquisitions the financial the daily realization we come to our census we shall meet the need if only to remember the soul the soul the soul the soul the healing the dignity of all ...
Read MorePoetry Issue #16: What If? April 30, 2025 Two Poems by Victoria Mack We Run Like Trees After Danez Smith Dream mountains—blue, purple, gray. Green valley, copper sky, white sun. All the sick girls are here. Boys too. But not as ghosts. Not shadows. No one lurks, haunts. We’re real. Thick. Bright, with neon outlines. Bright as Times Square. No fog. No mist to swallow our heads whole. Here, we keep our heads. Our brains are fast as trains. And yes, some have their chairs still. We know ...
Read MorePoetry Issue #16: What If? April 30, 2025 Two Poems by Shawn Aveningo-Sanders After His Second Nephrectomy Is my hospital gown tied in the back? Why can't I pee anymore? I take my time tying the cotton strings while I try to figure out how to answer the second question. There you go, Dad; we don’t want you flashing those pretty nurses. After the deluge of scans, lab tests, signed DNRs & consent forms, how did ...
Read MorePoetry Issue #16: What If? April 30, 2025 Night of the Gorillas by Bart Edelman Night of the Gorillas You wouldn’t have known; After all, how could you? But, then, there they stood, Shoulder to massive shoulder, Staring back at you for recognition. However, the fear was so great, You simply collapsed and sobbed. One by one they approached— Somewhat cautiously, at first— Trying to decide what to do. They knew you were troubled, And communicated back and forth. A few wanted to handle you, Cast their arms around ...
Read More