Prose, Poetry, and Art since 1956
Gene passed better than most of the other woodsers here did. He’d learned tricks in Seattle, when he pretended to be a university student in order to spend his days inside the clean, dry, academic buildings instead of outside. He was good at sink washes, knew how to take them and not get caught. The smell was usually the first thing that gave someone away…
I am a perennial vegetabledrinking myself purpleLoosely, we chained devilsspot a mushroom on the backyardOn the backyard sonnetOn the blessed easter of my chosenmother who sits like a strawberryin a cozy chair, I love her on my kneesshorn braids and the fish kindness do you rememberthe attunement of your youthin flowers, one foot on waterA child by the death veil surrounds, she learned from the…
In the ever-evolving pantheon of young adult literature, it’s rare to find a story so relevant, so intellectual, that the book will appeal to even adults. However, Val Neiman’s In the Lonely Backwater isn’t just another young adult novel. Much like its main character, Maggie, In the Lonely Backwater is uniquely intellectual, and more importantly, it’s the story of a young woman on the brink…
She’d listen closely, then gently remind Such is life!Her mantra: don’t live a coulda shoulda woulda life. Tucked me to bed with when the blaze is blue, and the lamp-wick sputters, and the wind goes woo-o: my future life. Saved the water from boiled potatoes, added it to the soup.After parties, washed the icing from the plastic forks. A frugal life. We’d sit in her…
builds a fortress in his living room from blankets, pillows, hand-me-down futon and today after shift you’ll go there instead / of going home to your own twin-sized bed, sleeping as the walls you’ve already outgrown try / to shrink you back down to size— he isn’t the right fit either, you knew that / back when he first kissed you, but you keep drifting…