Literary Journal
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Four years gone and I am still your mother,
by Ann Weil tracking time, crossingoff days— Mondays I washyour clean shirts, hang them on the line one by one they unpin, fly away, I hope they are homing pigeonsTuesdays I sweepunder your bedI am stillfinding your hairWednesdaysI sit on the rooflight a signal fireburn down the houseThursdays I buy binoculars, scan the blameless horizonFridays… Continue reading
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Every Time I Write a Poem I Fail
by Alicia Hoffman Promised I’d quit if my desires, like a switch, clicked easily off. Once, under the bright lights of Westminster, I walked lightly over stones and maybe I sacrificed nothing but the sacrament. Transformation was what I was after. Promised myself my poem would be vast. Definitely not superficial. Not coy. No clever… Continue reading
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Which Muslims Do You Write For?
by Elizabeth Shanaz The ones tired of performing / The ones with tattoos and piercings and cuss words’ fragrance on their tongues / The ones who are nearly hafiz / The ones who still have to look up the steps for namaz / The ones sick and tired of that masjid Attitude Aunty / The… Continue reading
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The Question
by Karen Bramblett The Caribbean’s azure handsgather moisture, pour waterover the mountains where it tumblesdown in a rocky river to the steel bridgeat Boquete’s center. On the west side,the Caldera River is flankedby tall-spined grass and adobe homes with open balconies. To the east, half-brown blades flop overbefore a fenced-in, manicured lawnand asphalt path.From the… Continue reading
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Property of Hell
by Z. T. Corley after Betye Saar’s The Beast that Pounds the Devil’s Dust, 1964I was made in the Devil’s image, something like a bull or a buffalo or a unicorn, wallowing in the dust of damnation. I kneelat the Devil’s feet like a wifebefore her husband, restingmy head on the burning ground,offering my throat… Continue reading
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staycation
by Jill Khoury cape of dew on my neck / flames in the turquoise chakra / inner unseaming / no one knows i am awake right now / the moaning also a trigger / painting with bird in snow hangs crooked / portrait of my long dark ago / when the tale wrote the teller… Continue reading
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Orange by C.L. Von Staden
C.L. Von Staden is an artist based in Central Texas. His work has been published in Bat City Review, Rejection Letters, Last Leaves Magazine, Star 82 Review, Moon Day Magazine, Ranger Magazine, Icarus Writing Collective, Thimble Literary Magazine and Exacting Clam. Continue reading
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Two Poems by JC Reilly
As I Anticipate My Lover Arriving in the Snow, I Make Up SomeCat-Themed Lyrics to My Favorite SongLincoln, NebraskaFlurries mixed with sleet turn the city white and slick. These things don’tseem so nice when it’s almost as frozen in my house as it is outdoors. Giveit another hour, it will be a full-on snowstorm in… Continue reading
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Two Poems by Katy Luxem
GenerationsOne more election and my firstbaby can vote. The other daywe saw two men walkingalong the side of a roadwith a gas can. She asked What do you think they are doing? And I said, starting a fire or, perhaps, they are just helpingone another get home. There really isn’t much distancebetween fear and hope.The… Continue reading
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Contributor Book: Sean Bw Parker
Contributor Sean Bw Parker, has just released a debut collection of poetry, Panopticon. The book is available through Close to the Bone publishing: https://www.close2thebone.co.uk/wp/books/panopticon/ Written between 2018 and 2025, these poems are snapshots of the 21st century British justice system in action. The title Panopticon refers to architect and prison reformer Sir Jeremy Bentham’s triangular… Continue reading
January House Literary Journal 