It’s been a year that too often has left many of us without words—thankfully, not those who’ve made this issue possible. Their voices offer clarity, sorrow, hope, humor, and a reminder to embrace nature’s beauty. Stop for a moment, listen, and, if you like, let folks know what you think. Then, join us in the […]
By Amy L. Bernstein “Because when it comes to truly explaining racial injustice in this country, the table should never be set quickly” – Nikole Hannah-Jones, “What is Owed,” New York Times Magazine, 2020 I stand on the far shore of the fast-moving Combahee River, opposite the Collective, afforded a distant glimpse through […]
By Kerry Loughman never budged becalmed she was bleached by sun & beached on relentless rise of blue water liquid leeched from her eyes her orifices her great mouth agape her lungs did evaporate Climate-changed her wishes drowned in sand Kerry Loughman is a retired educator and photographer living in the Boston […]
How a Woman Becomes Herself When the neighbor’s weed tree drapes over the power lines and shades her garden, she contemplates going out by moonlight to dump salt on the roots—but that could backfire and flow instead into the garden, be its ruination. These good neighbors invite her over for fine smoked brisket and can’t […]
By Mary Stebbins Taitt Artist’s statement: This painting, part of a series, is a resistance statement against the misuse of girls, boys, women, and others by flesh markets of prostitution, child pornography, and sex trafficking. The first painting in the series was a response in oils to an art installation by Tyree Guyton at Detroit’s Heidelberg […]
By Tim Murphy What if trees could talk? No. Of course they do. What if we could hear them speak just beneath our feet? What if birds of all feathers who lift the sky with song and frame it with flight told us what names to call them? What if we could simply bathe in […]
By Myna Chang We see the body on the way to drop our kids off at school. It’s in the median at the Parkway stoplight. We don’t recognize what it is, at first. Understanding comes in pieces: leg, arm, slender foot. Naked, of course. We try to look away. But is it someone we […]
By L. Acadia Describing our droomhuis for Dutch class, my worksheet filled with my dream house’s garden: Hollyhocks, hydrangea higher than I, wrought iron table for morning coffee, serenading birds, frogs ringing a pond. My love wrote an interior my mind couldn’t fit: puppy-claw impervious tile floors, dormer bedroom, dinner-party primed kitchen, postprandial dancing […]
Congregation of Ibis “A barrage of storms has resurrected what was once the largest body of fresh water west of the Mississippi River, setting the stage for a disaster this spring.” – from “Tulare Lake Was Drained Off the Map. Nature Would Like a Word,” Soumya Karlamangla and Shawn Hubler, New York Times, April […]
By Bryana Joy for God’s sake no more games she said setting the last set of lace panties in the trash i am befuddled by all this rigmarole this muddle this hullabaloo she threw a negligee out the door and all of her lipstick tubes i am i the only one you are you […]
By William Palmer tide in— imagine waves scraping away that name and the lies upon lies that feed off it, dissolving them in foam imagine the mugshot gone the blue suits gone the long red ties around our country’s neck gone William Palmer’s poetry has appeared recently in JAMA, J Journal, One Art, […]
An Illustrated Poem by Jane Muschenetz MIT grad and former Bain Management Consultant, Jane Muschenetz arrived in the United States as a child refugee from Soviet Ukraine. She is a 2023 City of Encinitas Exhibiting Artist and winner of The Good Life Review 2022 Poetry Prize. Her debut poetry collection, All the Bad Girls Wear […]
By Phyllis Wax A new drug for menopause is being hailed as a godsend for a condition many women endure in silence. Thing is, it costs $550 a month. And, unfortunately, hot flashes (hot flashes!) are among the most common side effects. They say it could also be toxic to the liver or affect […]
By Lorraine Schein The Last Revolution was yesterday. It was so successful, that all future revolutions were cancelled forever. A lesbian and her lover were elected President and Vice-President. Their lovemaking is televised nationally as part of the inaugural proceedings and greeted with applause by an appreciative at-home audience. Poets have been elected to […]
