Category: Dating + Relationships

Heart’s Paradox

Paula R. Hilton

When you weren’t looking, I slipped a piece of my heart, its left ventricle, into your suitcase. This chamber pumps blood throughout the entire body. Mine, yours, ours. Waiting for a transplant, Stan Larkin lived 555 days with no heart at all. Carried artificial organ’s power source inside a gray Read more

Paula R. Hilton

Paula R. Hilton explores the immediacy of memory and how our most important relationships define us. Her work has been nominated for Best Small Fictions and has appeared in The Feminine Collective, The Sunlight Press, Writing In A Woman’s Voice, Dear Damsels, The Tulane Review, and elsewhere. Her novel, Little Miss Chaos, was selected as a Best Indie Teen Read by Kirkus, and her first poetry collection, At Any Given Second, received a Kirkus star. She holds an MFA from the University of New Orleans.

Serial Lover

Yvy Niyom

Truly yours with no Resistance, Time to tell the Classic Tale, Twelve not Seven, History echoed, I am a serial lover with a Heart. Fearfully tangled in the Phantom web, From nowhere Lies came to Life, Forsaken by Thee, History echoed, I am a serial lover with a Mind. Curiously Read more

Yvy Niyom

Writing has always been my passion, but speaking multiple languages never helped me as I could never be fully immersed in one language. Having learned English last, I have felt more comfortable but also more insecure about writing. My education is diverse, and so are my work experiences. I am currently finishing my thesis in Counselling Psychology. I have a college degree in sciences, a first bachelor's degree in Psychology and Sociology, and a second bachelor's degree in Adult Education. Personal favorite saying: Love Life, Mysterious, Unpredictable

Ribbed

Angela Townsend

You may be able to count my ribs. If we press through the fat to count yours, not one will be missing. I gave it back. I gave them all back: the rib, the ribs, the ring, the ringing in my ears. I would have given Eden to be your Read more

Angela Townsend

As Development Director for a cat sanctuary, Angela Townsend bears witness to mercy for all beings. This was not the vocation she expected when she got her M.Div. from Princeton Seminary, but love is a wry author. Angie also has a B.A. from Vassar College. She has lived with Type 1 diabetes for 32 years, laughs with her mother every morning, and delights in the moon. Her work has appeared or will be published in upcoming issues of Agape Review, The Amethyst Review, Braided Way, MockingOwl Roost, The Palisades Review, and The Young Ravens Literary Review. Angie loves life dearly.

THIS IS GOING KIND OF FAST

Angel Rosen

On our fifth day of texting, you mention a wedding in which I am your bride. In the middle of the night, something falls from the ceiling and hits me in the face. It’s a party favor that says MRS.&MRS. I put it in a drawer with all the other Read more

Angel Rosen

Angel Rosen is a poet living near Pittsburgh. She can be found at open mic nights, drag shows or writing poetry in the dark. She is passionate about mental health, queer friendship, and Amanda Palmer's art community. Her writing can be found at angelrosen.com.

The monster in me… Limp sonnet

Elisabeth Horan

It’s so fun to fuck a woman, then leave her. It’s so easy to smile, and become her man. When you make me bleed, you ain’t so big — It shouldn’t be so easy to eat a heart… I’m thinking of you now, texting me; booty call I’m thinking of 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.

Vibrate All

Doug Hoekstra

i like the sound of no phone no retro ring tone no buzzing in my pants vibrate all vibrate who vibrate you the space between us right now the slipstream meditating words ideas feelings xoxoxo I like the sound of deeper meaning no space between us Photo by Jonathan Borba Read more

Doug Hoekstra

Doug Hoekstra is a Chicago-bred, Nashville-based writer and musician, educated at DePaul University in the Windy City (B.A.) and Belmont University in the Music City (M.Ed.), whose prose, poetry, and non-fiction have appeared in numerous print and online literary journals. His first set of stories, Bothering the Coffee Drinkers, was published in April 2006 and earned an Independent Publisher Award (IPPY) for Best Short Fiction (Bronze Medal). Ten Seconds In-Between, his latest collection of short stories, was published in June, 2021 on Better than Starbuckspress. Hoekstra has also worked extensively as a singer-songwriter with eight albums of original material on labels released on both sides of the pond, propelling touring throughout the U.S. and Europe, at bookstores, coffeehouses, clubs, libraries, pubs, festivals, radio stations, and castles; solo and with combos in tow. Musical highlights have included Nashville Music Award and Independent Music Award nominations, as well as many groovy happenings. 2021 also brings a new album of music, The Day Deserved. ("A lot of people write songs, Hoekstra writes five minute worlds" - Wired Magazine).

The After

Emily Algar

You make me high And soft I sink myself into you As I feel you slowly slipping away I hold onto this feeling, this place of happiness, of silly smiles and heat Even when you leave, you leave me brighter and I leave my mark on you too I never 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.

4/14/20

Elisabeth Horan

I dictate a message to you on fb – explaining how much I still love you, and that I never meant to hurt you. I do another one, to another lover…. very similar, but different. Mute/I am a wrecking ball. Unmute/fight with the husband: you were behind the barn smoking… 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.