Category: Poetry

lost mail packages

Kashiana Singh

I discover kernels, in poems. The shell breaks open to a singed blossom of hair. Before I spit the weirdness out, I savor it a reeling storm in my nose and mouth. For a split second, I see a topiary. I awake to dreams, perhaps they are catchers to my Read more

Kashiana Singh

Kashiana Singh is a management professional by job classification and a work practitioner by personal preference. Kashiana’s TEDx talk was dedicated to Work as Worship. Her poetry collection, Shelling Peanuts and Stringing Words presents her voice as a participant and an observer. She dips into very vulnerable and personal contexts but also explores the shifting tectonic plates of the world around her. She is from India, now lives in Chicago and bridges the miles by regularly etching her thoughts. She is a regular contributor to different poetry platforms like OnMogul, Literary Yard, Best Poems, Narrow Mag, Modern Literature, SikhNet, Women’s Web, Tuck Magazine, Spillwords, Visual Verse. She is in the process of gathering her second collection of poems. Facebook: KashianaSinghAuthor/facebook Twitter: @Kashianasingh

yes mother

Jacqueline Cioffa

Behind every mother, there is despair and strength. Behind every mother, there are tears of joy and pride. Behind every mother, trash bins wait to be emptied, mountains of dirty laundry to be washed, and meals cooked. It is a dirty, thankless job being a yes mother. Twenty-four hours is Read more

Jacqueline Cioffa

A retired, international model, and celebrity makeup artist. Co-Author of Model Citi Zen, the guide. Founder of http://modelcitizenmakeup.blogspot.com/. Author of numerous prose pieces in various literary magazines. Most recently published in Little Episodes Brainstorms the anthology, among esteemed artists Sadie Frost, Melvin Burgess and Todd Swift.

“he and she and all of them”

Lauren Anders

I’ve fell in love with one hundred different people for one hundred different reasons. I knew no matter what they would be there for me how selfish that I loved that the sound of their voice made me cry, and they who never broke a gaze. how appealing that I Read more

Lauren Anders

Lauren Anders is originally from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma where she graduated with her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Oklahoma City University. She recently completed a master's program at the New York Academy of Art and now lives and works in Manhattan pursuing various artistic practices.

A Gurney for Me

Melissa Mulvihill

Two nights ago I argued with a man tall as the ceiling, jagged teeth filthy and piercing, standing over my son intent on stealing his breath racing his heart, charring his fevered brain. The man seeped into my blood while I fought him and clutched my gut crawling to the Read more

Melissa Mulvihill

Melissa writes from northeast Ohio where she lives with her husband and sons, 18 and 22. She has been published in multiple issues of The Blue Nib Literary Magazine, Intermission E-Zine, The Write Launch Literary Magazine, Poet's Haven Digest, Strange Land Anthology, The Distance Between Insanity and Genius Anthology, and It Was a Dark and Stormy Night Anthology. Her poem, Your Phone Call, appeared in The Blue Nib 2017 Anthology. She writes about homeschooling and growing kids during a decade long battle with stage 4 Endometriosis and she shares stories that demand to be told from her childhood in Danville, Illinois. She writes for the same reason's she reads poetry-because it's crowded in her head and heart.

a person alone, under a blanket of “friends”

Paakhi Bhatnagar

And still you longed for someone To give you the kind of love they show in movies The one that doesn’t end with an empty text, One which flows through flowers and Wine bottles pouring at dinner parties. One which sings through tears, Birthed together in our very own refuge. Read more

Paakhi Bhatnagar

Paakhi Bhatnagar is a student from India and an avid reader of historical fiction. She is a passionate feminist and blogs about current politics and feminist issues. She also possess the uncanny ability of turning everything into a debate.

Lavender

Kari A Flickinger

Do you understand I destroy every fragment of lavender I touch? I swallow lavender—soak my wrists in lavender. I take the tiny bulbs. I slice them with a wooden blade. I toss them in the bell. I throw them in each pot. I breathe lavender. Exude—elude you with lavender. I Read more

Kari A Flickinger

Kari A. Flickinger's poetry has been published in or is forthcoming from Written Here: The Community of Writers Poetry Review, Iron Horse Literary Review, Burning House Press, Door Is A Jar, Isacoustic, Ghost City Review, Eunoia Review, and Riddled with Arrows, among others. She is an alumna of UC Berkeley. When she is not writing, she can be found playing guitar and singing to her unreasonably large Highlander cat, as well as obsessively over-analyzing the details of neighboring trees.

Are you my mother?

Catherine Zickgraf

—cried the hatchling, beginning to exhibit seeking behavior. Its mother gone silent because father— Was I, tongue-dry, just dreaming that time she pledged to leave me at the train station if I darted quick for the water fountain? He pronounced me dead in the punishment of banishment, declared they would Read more

Catherine Zickgraf

Catherine Zickgraf has performed her poetry in Madrid, San Juan, and three dozen other cities—yet homeschooling her autistic youngest inspires her the most. Her writing has appeared in Journal of the American Medical Association, [Pank], Victorian Violet Press, and The Grief Diaries.

Just a Second

Tiffany Meuret

The washer is full of clothes I need to hang up The dryer is broken They need to be hung up before they smell I’ve washed the same load 3 days in a row I said this time would be the last But I’m tired because The dishes are overflowing Read more

Tiffany Meuret

Tiffany is a writer, mother, and OCD sufferer from Phoenix, Arizona. Her work has been published or is forthcoming with Shoreline of Infinity, MoonPark Review, Collective Unrest, Ellipsis Zine, and others. Find her on Twitter @TMeuretBooks. Talking points are good coffee and small dogs.