Poetry Issue #16: What If? April 30, 2025 Three Poems by Kristin Camitta Zimet if IF I stay awake if I am loyal enough clever enough You will not die If I ask the best questions If I praise the nurse appease the nurse fire the nurse If I second-guess the doctor If I push the doctor hard outside the protocol the box the casket make the doctor notice who you are why you are irreplaceable IF I am lovable enough beautiful enough worth staying for You will hang on If I am seductive selfless reassuring selfish harsh ...
Read MorePoetry Issue #16: What If? April 30, 2024 If I Could Do It All Over Again by Judith Shapiro If I Could Do It All Over Again what if I had gone north instead of south; stood up tall instead of hunched; parted my hair in the middle instead of left; gone skydiving; learned to play the violin, speak Russian what if I’d stayed put; hadn’t insisted on change, big change, exciting change; sold everything; packed up ...
Read MorePoetry Issue #16: What If? April 30, 2025 My Daughter's Celebratory Private Plane Ride by Francey Grossman My Daughter's Celebratory Private Plane Ride what if she had failed chemistry then no celebration what if the weather had shut down her flight what if her fiancée had not been available to join her what if the pilot had more experience what if the pilot had not chosen to play stop and go what if she had waited for a different pilot what if ...
Read MorePoetry Issue #16: What If? April 30, 2025 Three Poems by Lou Ventura First Week Home I am trying to believe what I’ve been told, but I see the jagged, angry zipper of stitches running down the left side of your head – not the half-moon shape they promised, and I see your eyes, emptied by fear and pharmaceuticals, while your smile pleads with me and the girls to be reassured, but I know you too well – I know your unrelenting desire to consume everything life ...
Read MorePoetry Issue #16: What If? April 30, 2025 Two Poems by Shakira Croce What to Expect The ache waned, yet there should be something to show for the remains, drawn out into plastic tubes and rolled on loose metal down linoleum for more testing to add to the bill before the incinerator. The word “lucky” was never used, but so many turned and said “it was good, you...” After all, the procedures were only minimally invasive, leaving a perfectly empty space. I should have noted the warning signs: visions ...
Read MoreEditorial Issue #15: Harmony October 15, 2024 Letter from the Poetry Editor: More Than A Metaphor by Stephen Granzyk armony as word and concept turns easily into metaphor. Beyond the world of music, for most of us, the word probably connotes inner peace, or the satisfaction derived from the strongest connections we share with others, or with the natural world. We may also associate harmony with an existential belief in an orderly cosmos, whether divinely ordained ...
Read MorePoetry Issue #15: Harmony October 15, 2024 Trigger Warning by Kelly Cass Falzone Trigger Warning Just seeing the word— the reach of that R A’s legs pulled open (a forearm to brace them) the vag at A’s upended v the stiff shaft of the P APE that he was that damn three-legged E see how A leans away from R’s cock- bully pose— hand thrust onto his hip the tip of the A– two wrists pinned at the apex— the punch of P’s fist in the chest and the eye the E ...
Read MorePoetry Issue #15: Harmony October 15, 2024 Mending by Millie Jackson Mending She abandons her paints, .......her brushes, .........the needles and tapestry… ...........lays down the spoon that mixed the batter. Her eyes exhausted .......from depression .........that follows mania. She explodes .........and melts ...........overandoverandoveragain No one understands .......hushed whispers blame ...........“She’s at it again.” .......As if .........she can control .............what is happening .......in .........her ...........brain .............& ...............body. .......Sometimes .........she is locked away, ...........throw away the key. .........The house falls silent ...........Is there silence in the hospital? ...................No, never in the hospital. .........It is full of noisebustlewordspillsshockreatments. Drugs dull her .........quiet .............her creative vigor ...............muted .........she feels like death. And so .......she ...
Read MorePoetry Issue #15: Harmony October 15, 2024 A Greek Myth and a Long Illness by Veronica Ashenhurst A Greek Myth and a Long Illness Phaeton longed to drive the day, to steer Apollo’s sun-chariot through the sky. I might have warned him not to go, but he would have defied me. His fate quickened: the horses reeled, the coach plunged, with searing sun, to earth. To save the globe, Zeus pierced Phaeton with a thunderbolt, and tucked him in paradise, a constellation to his ...
Read MorePoetry Issue #15: Harmony October 15, 2024 Three Poems by Kelly Cass Falzone The First Sound Before I had a drum in my ear, before I had an ear even, I had sound that was no sound: a pulse through my heart when I was mostly only a heart, a slim of spine, and curled brow. I knew the slosh of slick liquid on my skin, that transparent sheath of almost only water. I knew the tumble of my heavy head-first, that buoyant seahorse bobbing-business, suspense. I knew ...
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