Category: Featured

Back to Black

Kim Sisto Robinson

The last thing I remember about last Night was dancing on a tarnished table To Amy Winehouse’s, Back to Black. Everything was uneven like shattered Glass, a Picasso painting, a gaping eye staring Presumably at my preposterous behavior After drinking five, or was it six Margaritas? A hand here, a Read more

Kim Sisto Robinson

Kim Sisto Robinson is a mother, lover, poet, writer, educator, obsessive blogger, lover of cats, cheese puffs, chocolate chips cookies, Sylvia Plath, addicted to books, women’s stories, walking with audio books ( Lolita was off the charts!), and powerful, transformative words. Her work has appeared in Scary Mommy, Bella On Line, Glass Woman, Migrations, Rebelle Society, and Feminine Collective. She created her blog, My Inner Chick, to honor her sister, Kay, whom was murdered by her estranged husband in 2010. Her mission is to give “Voice” to all women without one. She was honored the "Men As Peacemaker's Award" in 2015 for her work with domestic violence.

Prize of Poison

Judith Staff

I want it. No,need it, the panacea; Or, perhaps the exhilaration of the release trailing after it – unsure which; Does it matter? Drink to numb. Calories purged. Caffeine pulsing. All drenched in familiar relief. The isolation I don’t want, but it’s mine, handcuffed to me, by a rusted padlock made of shame. Read more

Judith Staff

Judith Staff’s background is in teaching and early years education. She still teaches occasionally, though now her main focus is in child welfare and safeguarding children. Her work includes delivering training, presenting at conferences, and engaging in collaborative projects with schools around child abuse awareness and sexual violence prevention. She enjoys writing blogs and poetry on topics she feels passionate about. Judith loves running, gym classes and karate. She is married to an art lecturer and they live in Northamptonshire, England with their three free-spirited children, a 12- year-old son, and daughters aged 11 and 9.

Sun Rays in Strands

Z. M. Wise

Cool in Japanese garden shade, parchment spirits float on a sea of clay. Empty are the raindrops that fall on storm faces, conversing about the philosophical indoor games we would play. You golden Greek goddess, you Norse heroine of mythology. Mixing the raiment with remedies, tea sipping and singing of Read more

Z. M. Wise

Z.M. Wise is a proud Illinois native from Chicago, poet, essayist, occasional playwright, seldom screenwriter, co-editor and arts activist, writing since his first steps as a child. He is co-owner and co-editor of Transcendent Zero Press https://transcendentzeropress.org/ , an independent publishing house for poetry that produces an international quarterly journal known as Harbinger Asylum. He is the author of seven books and chapbooks of published poetry and a play, including: Take Me Back, Kingswood Clock! (MavLit Press, 2013); The Wandering Poet (Transcendent Zero Press, 2014); Wolf: An Epic & Other Poems (Weasel Press, 2015); Cuentos de Amor (Red Ferret Press, 2015); Kosmish and the Horned Ones (Weasel Press, 2018); Illinois Infinitarium (Cherry House Press, 2020); and The Nightmare Mask (TBD). His debut play, Bottles of Emerald for the Demon Queen (Transcendent Zero Press, 2019), was published in late December of 2019. His most recent chapbook of poetry, the mini-epic known as The Nightmare Mask, is searching for a brand new home. Other than these books, his poems, lyrics, essays, and book reviews have been published in various journals, magazines, and anthologies. Besides poetry and other forms of writing, his other passions/interests include professional voice acting, singing/lyricism/songwriting, playing a few instruments, fitness, and reading.

The Math of a Princess

Kristin Garth

is there’s just one of you — more in the corps, a dozen girls who covet the headpiece secured by thirty bobby pins.  Abhor your good fortune. Pretend to be friends. Peace is mathematically sound when it’s ten surrounding one, too terrified, thin.  Learn survival means shopping, invitations — one Read more

Kristin Garth

Kristin Garth is a poet from Pensacola, Florida. She is a knee sock aficionado and a sonnet stalker. Her sonnets have stalked the pages of Luna Luna, Occulum, Anti-Heroin Chic, Ghost City Review, Drunk Monkeys, TERSE, Journal and many other publications. Her chapbook Pink Plastic House is available through maverickduckpress.com

Listen to Your Mother

M. Anne Sweet

I am your mother the birth-blood on your forehead a fedora the milk nipple a trough gone dry I am coyote cry that curls from your throat spittle that chokes your forlorn moan the wolf’s rattling howl I am Pontius Pilate the hammer the nail the washer of feet I Read more

M. Anne Sweet

M. Anne Sweet is a poet and artist who has performed and exhibited throughout the Pacific Northwest. As a poet, she has performed individually, as well as with The Seattle Five Plus One, Project Z and the Daughters of Dementia. Literary credits include an anthology, The Seattle Five Plus One: Poetry; a book-length poetry collection, Nailed to the Sky; past winner of the Bart Baxter Poetry in Performance Competition; and numerous works in print and online. She maintains a working studio in the Georgetown area of Seattle. Her visual artworks include mixed media, photographic, and digital pieces, as well as a series of graphic poems (in the genre of graphic novels) that combine her visual art and poetry.

White Horses

Emily Algar

He offered me a white horse and a happily ever after. I have never been much for hollow happiness, And ever afters are plans I couldn’t ever stick to.   I counter-offered two white horses, two streams of thought, And the uncertainty of love in the here and now…     Read more

Emily Algar

Emily Frances Algar is a journalist and writer. She has experience in the music industry working as the A&R on the Grammy Nominated Album (Best Folk Album) Front Porch by artist Joy Williams. Emily has been published in a number of print and digital publications including Atwood Magazine, American Songwriter, and Record Collector magazine. She specializes in both long and short-form features as well as interviews and reviews. She has written pieces ranging from the commercialization of feminism and feminism in popular culture, critiques surrounding freedom of speech and the #MeToo movement as well as recently interviewing refugees from Iran. Emily has a Masters in International Security from Oxford Brookes University. Her thesis looked at the extent to which the media shaped public opinion during the Vietnam and Iraq (2003) wars.

Dusk falls in the night with no end

Elisabeth Horan

Hours slip by ticking Out cells of my eyes One laborious, one Yogurt, wet, heavy Slides thick like thighs Waitout the drumlike Dance of blood upon The water plane, a Would be quenching If it weren’t for the fact Of saturation—one cannot Force a toilet filled red Any more wet Read more

Elisabeth Horan

Elisabeth Horan is a poet mother student lover of kind people and animals, homesteading in Vermont with her tolerant partner and two young sons. She writes to survive and survives to write - We are all battling something. Let's support each other. Elisabeth enjoys riding horses and caring for her cats, chickens, goats and children (not necessarily in that order). She teaches at River Valley Community College in New Hampshire.

10 Hopeful Hacks for Beating the Holiday Blues

Dori Owen

I am not a fan of beating the blues advice that is patently gratuitous, overdone, or quite obvious. Yes, a walk on the beach sounds invigorating but I live in Arizona. You know what I’m talking about, these lists inundate Google if you search for overcoming a down mood or Read more

Dori Owen

Dori Owen is a storyteller, writing from small town Arizona, after living a few decades in California as an LA Wild Child, with a brief stop in Reno. She settled into grownup life as a project manager, collecting an MBA and a few husbands along the way. She is a shown artist and her favorite pastime is upcycling old furniture and decor she finds from thrift stores. She lives with the cat who came to visit but stayed. The love of her life is her grown son who lives in Portland, Oregon. Her essays and poems have been published in RAW&UNFILTERED VOL I, StigmaFighters Vol 2, and Love Notes From Humanity. Her blogs have been featured on The Lithium Chronicles, Open Thought Vortex, Sudden Denouement, and The Mighty.