Poetry Issue #17: Free November 1, 2025 Stopping CPR by Flavian Mark Lupinetti Stopping CPR is much more difficult than starting which everyone knows how to do so hard to admit you lost now all that’s within your control is what kind of exit you make graceful and dignified versus clumsy and chaotic ask whether anyone has any ideas but no one says a word you've already tried all the good ideas the only ones remaining are the stupid ones oh hell blast in one more round of ...

Poetry Issue #17: Free November 1, 2025 During Tree Pose by Stephanie Striffler During Tree Pose Our yoga teacher reminds us to grieve. She wears blue leggings and a yellow top for the people of Ukraine, so I believe that is what she means. A few moments pass before I understand she has commanded us to breathe. By then I have already taken in the wisdom of the word I heard. As if she knows how those I love are leaving me. Maybe she also ...

Poetry Issue #17: Free November 1, 2025 Two Poems by Alice Ranjan Lab Oratory I want to bleed words onto the page, exsanguinate all that is within me, but the shock I feel is a tourniquet restricting the flow of thoughts, leaving me numb and far from sanguine – My patient lies in a hospital bed alone, her platelet counts so low that she could bleed to death. I meditate in the office alone, after a long day of sifting through laboratory results and cancer ...

Poetry Issue #17: Free November 1, 2025 On Independence Day by Donna J. Gelagotis Lee On Independence Day With a migraine attack, I try to ignore the Pop Booms of fireworks. It’s a fireworks in my brain. A display of colors. Why do we have fireworks? Aren’t the stars spectacle enough? Isn’t the way the moon sheds fragments of light over treetops plenty of marvel? For now, every shot of awe launches a cannonball in my brain. I know I’m not the only one of 38 ...

Poetry Issue #17: Free November 1, 2025 Resurrection, Body and Soul by Joe Cottonwood Resurrection, Body and Soul Before bedtime, shriveling old Edith sheds clothing to bathe while shivering old Josh bundled on Adirondack chair watches, guards her. Join her if you want. Lake water jolts the heart, firms the flesh. Ask Edith. Waves slosh. Owls call. Edith beckons, laughs. Come, jump. Don’t worry how you look because I look worse and anyway it’s dark and nobody’s peeking. Swim among tiny fish and silent mussels, a Milky Way of freckles, ...

Poetry Issue #17: Free November 1, 2025 Like Water Running Uphill by Shay Wills Like Water Running Uphill I wanted solitude a hike but the memories rise like dust from the trail Trailing me a red balloon one hand leading the other clutching my broken perfections my shames on paper ribbons written in tear smears Came to let go going ahead in Arizona’s summer forgot water and food it’ll be fine Tongue stuck to the sole of my mouth like sand to skin feet throbbing in sneakers dusty like a rabbit Far enough along the trail at a clearing and summit I ...

Poetry Issue #17: Free November 1, 2025 I Am You & Gracie by Paul Hostovsky I Am You   The truly selfless know we are not separate. I am anything but selfless, but today when I saw you in hospice, in your hospital bed, in your dementia, drowning in the vast shallows of the bedsheets, which were tangled around your legs from all your kicking and scissoring as though you were trying to swim to the other shore, I thought to myself: That could be me. And then I thought: Maybe that will be me in how many years? And ...

Poetry Issue #17: Free October 15, 2025 Instructions by Kate Marshall Flaherty Instructions is a word like origami, with points and creases, things to unfurl. It is simple, origami. Pure and lovely. Recipes were once passed on from parent to child, with oil blots, sweet smudges, and little notes scribbled in the margin: Adjust for taste, less is more, if you can’t find one thing, you can use another. Don’t over-handle the dough, or it’ll get tough and bitter. If you can’t figure out the ...