Poem
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Two Poems by Laura Denny
The Nature of SunlightI want to give in again the way I did when we were newly married.In My Life, was your wedding song.I was pregnant, and we were happy for three months. Then you got sick. I remember one afternoon I wheeled you to Ocean View Park to shave your head. I bought you… Continue reading
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85 Seconds to Midnight
by Kip Knott We are born out of nothingness,the emptiness of the universe.All of us know this void well. We spend our days filling itwith something more than light,something more than darkness, something more than the atomsthat bind us one to the otherand the atoms that may one day split us apart. Kip Knott is… Continue reading
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Two Poems by KB Ballentine
Longing is my mother,and we are headed to the oceanto talk about my fatherwho just died.She grew upwith him, knew himfor more than half a century. 28,204 days holding handsSalt-spray stingsour faces, but we still wantthe sea. He snorkledand she surfed – they embracedthe same things differently. holding hands 28,204 days Each crest and troughof… Continue reading
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Two Poems by Valentina Fulginiti
when a poet diesit’s not every day that a poet dies,last words tossed with scattered changeinside the glove compartment, frozen under crusty soles and muddy tracks and everywhere the same panic screams its FUCK DID YOU DO’s and His name wasted on a youthful killer’s lips // it’s not every day that a poet dies… Continue reading
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The poem is not the words though the poem is made of words
by Hilary Sallick This morning a silver cat appeared outside my window its second visit in two daysIt stepped from the roofof my neighbor’s shedto the trunk of the mulberry where it clungagainst gravity raptby the nearness of a squirrel downward-hanging easyin its tree The catheld on and met those eyes with its ownThen the… Continue reading
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Jaundice Baby
by Sukayna Davanzo Sunflowers but not their seeds. Sunsets, sunrises, the sun, some brands of suntan lotion. Bananas, vanilla cake, the inside of a mango. Melted butter, melted butter dripped over fried cauliflower, finished with a squeeze of lemon. Gold, hay, most corn, maybe wheat, pineapples. My favorite bottle of lemon-scented Lysol. The stereotypical rain… Continue reading
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Aubade With First Responder
by Edward Lineberry Bernard takes us to the wrong hotelthe one without the homeless campthe one beyond pedestrian reach,but he resets with aplomb and finds Little Italy, our Christmasmorning home, the slim canyons beside the highway rendered chaste,free again of tents and their humancargo. No marine layer, no clouds:the San Diego sun scales the mesa,a… Continue reading
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The Epitome of Marriage
by Ashley Kirkland My husband tells memy hair isn’t curly. It’s wavy. Says I don’tclean the house. I tidy. Like I’m some woodland creature in a cartoon. What’s weird is I clean constantly, curls swinging wildly downmy back. I wonder if this isn’t the epitomeof marriage after a decade(or flash, I can’t tell): saying the… Continue reading
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Why I Call Myself “Feminist”
by Grace Lee Because we stared at the mirror througha fog of tears, pinching and pointingas the male gaze held us tightly in itssuffocating grasp like the dresses theysqueezed us into. Because feminismbecame the “F” word, inviting a chorusof jeers as it left our lips, forcing usinto painful silence, our lips lockedand the key thrown… Continue reading
January House Literary Journal 