At fourteen, Vanessa Hoffman started complaining of headaches and fatigue. Her stomach was finicky, and her appetite dwindled. Sometimes she found herself out of breath and sometimes her hands and legs felt numb and sometimes her joints hurt. Her balance would go off intermittently. She answered adults with “Yes, sir” and “Yes, ma’am” and mostly […]
Poetry: Cat by Martha Strom
Cat i came home crazed the cat willy dubbed diamond, electrified, raced around, almost tripping me several times it might have been that she saw i was keeping my external behavior in check, who knows, but in any case she lay at the foot of my bed like an egyptian monolith— a sphinx– the embodiment […]
Poetry: Bucha 2022 by Allison Carroll
Bucha 2022 Dark smudges in the sky, or is it black feathers? You see them now. Black birds. Ravens and vultures circling over Kyiv. In the city outskirts, red soldiers are invading. You hear them marching, and the hammering sound is getting louder. You hear frightening gunfire. You wonder who was killed. A family member? […]
Poetry: The Bath by David Sapp
The Bath Something – everything Wrong all wrong I know now I didn’t then I burst in – intuitively Propelled by my Own vague memory There a too familiar Too intimate scene Mother and little sister In the bath together Annulling “perfectly innocent” Mother reclining in warm water Child standing shivering Naked confused paralysis At […]