Carry On

By Kimberly Kinser

They confiscated her knitting needles.
She could have tossed the whole sock or just pulled
the tiny needles from their knit two purl
two round. No heels. No gussets. No toes. No
hope of convincing officers that her

In Praise of Skunk Cabbage

By Kay Mullen

By Kay Mullen Water quickens under the bridge, near the pond where the gray-green algae begins to fade. Beyond the stone arch, the cabbage with their yellow hoods and flowered horns announce spring, candles flaring among the bracken and beige scraps of knotweed. Soon, chameleon-like, they will shift colors to the cocklebur and tarweed’s deep […]

Back Waters

By Kay Mullen

By Kay Mullen The snow goose glides back waters of the pond. Pigeon-gray patches of sky mirror her fading wings. Soon she will be white as reflections of the snow-covered mountain rippling beside her among tangles of brush, vast ranges of cedar and birch. At night, the snow goose nests near the salmonberry, morning light […]

Uptown

By Kim Secunda

By Kim Secunda Leonard Cohen meets Nina Simone for drinks Wednesday 2:15 uptown They share a dentist share clam chowder he chain smokes she bites her nails the rain is bossa nova slantwise neon outside the pane bleeds both venous and arterial her new crown aches more than her love he uses up both their […]

On Saying Goodbye

By Jill McCabe Johnson

By Jill McCabe Johnson And if I loved you, I could say, stay with me. Istvan Laszlo Geher Another day in a city of days where the sun doles light, and work numbs like a jigger of gray, gray as the sidewalk where we walk. Where maple leaves filter brightness in metered doses of green. […]

Disappearing Hieroglyphics

By Maya Borhani

This nest of sun-crackled grass pulls me earthward
like seed heads drowsy with late summer’s weight,
more prone than upright, closer to winter
than to the longest day. Sunk to earth’s

Reading Jung Late at Night

By Maya Borhani

I see the pictures now just as they are,
golden knights and a fearsome dragon
come to contend for the fate of our souls.
They rise from the page in a language known