“Ghosts” by Loretta Tobin
“Each page I turn arouses memories,
ghosts mustering in my tiny office,
bumping each other and crowding me”
-
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“Varicosities” by Rebecca Brock
“The doctor hisses a small yesss
that lingers and I see a bird,
worm in its grasp, the body
in and out of the earth,
except it’s my leg and my vein
and I should look but I’m learning
I don’t always have to.” -
“Returns Department” by Jan Schmidt
“Throughout the jiggling trip, stopping and starting, grumbling motor, people getting on and off, trees and ocean whizzing by, I ignore it all to administer the silent treatment to Nick. He’s acting like he doesn’t notice the thousand cuts from my icy glares, but he’ll find out I’m not playing. Today I’m returning Nick to his parents.”
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“borderless” by Brittany Mishra
“there was much
steepling of hands
as if the surgeons
were trying to build
a church to house
their inoperable religion” -
“Two Annas” by Yuliya Musakovska
“Anna to the left
and Anna to the right,
wild mice,
two halves of an apple.
Now it is time to make a wish:
May this be our last visit here.” -
“Duplex” by Carrie Shipers
“I have the same disease my family does.
I try to tell stories to make things right.I keep trying to tell our stories right
because I want to understand our past.” -
“Give Me a Room in Hotel Eternity…” by Susan Cohen
“Poetry never saved anyone from death, though it might have helped a few to go on living.”
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“Coming Quiet” by Kathleen Loe
“It’s almost September again.
I sit stiffening in the wide
wicker chair, watching
my line break while late summer folds
the garden like a spent libretto, edges
shredded to a slatternly fringe.” -
“A New Widow” by Christy Prahl
“Fleshy apples cave as winter arrives early
one October afternoon.Even the cranes gorging
their hard corn in the fields
seem bewildered.” -
“Red Rover” by Julia Rose Greider
“It all starts, Margaret will see later, with the old voicemail that plays through her earbuds on the train to work one morning in the first September Cara is gone. In that moment Cara begins to be resurrected, meticulously pruned, like a bonsai. I have some exciting news, she says, not really Cara but only the captured sound waves that are all that’s left of her by then. I need to tell you about it. And I want to hear what’s up with you. Okay, love you. Call me.”
