Knotted willows eye a ladybug soliloquizing atop fence post ledges, Juliet balconies, lamented by recurrent doves, unperturbed as the branches make room for the noose. Nola Iwasaki currently lives and writes in Oregon and is an MFA candidate at Oregon State University. Featured Artwork: Faded Youth from the Urban Allegory series TJ Norris is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist based in Fort Worth, TX. He studied at Massachusetts College of Art and NSCAD (Halifax). His work …

Mornings fade: lonely mist across a silent yard, one small pair of shoes remaining: soft as a summer’s night, but empty; they rest on the sill, a bright day beyond. I am thinking of the scent of soap on new skin, am remembering how I held you close, before I gave you away. Frances Koziar has published poetry in over 30 different literary magazines, including Vallum and Acta Victoriana. She is a young (disabled) retiree and a social justice advocate, and she lives in Kingston, Ontario, …

I’m music stand and mud, littered with the plastic lips of a late-night celebration. I’m walking down a bowling alley, ready to strike, gently. I’ve stopped at a gas station to fill the well with helium, squeaking, Please don’t let anyone I love die before their time. A guy on a bike with a boombox rides by, arms out like a kite. Confetti stains the shelves where toilet paper used to be. I check my phone again, in the middle of foraging for bubble wrap. What’s happening in …

Like Lewis and Clark, I learned it’s okay To be gay When you’re stuck on a boat. Like Lewis and Clark, I went out with my friend. Like Lewis and Clark I looked at a map. Like Lewis and Clark, I discovered something, Ass. Raechel Segal is a poet, playwright, actor, and improviser. Playwriting credits include "Dykes on Wheels" (The Tank, NYC), "We Can Be Queeros" (Hudson Guild Theatre, NYC), "Moon Juice" (Manhattan Repertory Theatre, NYC), "The Best of Bushwick" (Manhattan Repertory …

How awful, I say in tweet and reply. How terrible. Disgusting! Enraging. Why? What a monster. How awful. My heart. Round face, single tear emoji. What is even happening? Who are we? I heart the posts that share my mood, I heart the posts that implicate me. I put my phone down and take out the chicken that has been defrosting on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator for nearly three days. I begin to ease out of my worry. I begin to reach for the salt, white pepper, without thinking of …

Let's say I throw the pebble and the pebble is you gray and irregular slightly more jagged at one end than the other the ripples then in the pond are also you or you-shaped somewhat anyway let's say you-influenced at least at first that first one that pushes out the rest shoulders out the rest of the ripples surprising the face of the pond confusing the sky's calm reflection startling the fish beneath the surface just there topsy-turvying perhaps the water …