The Catalogue of Men

Before sunrise I’m flipping through a catalogue of men,  A parade of men looking for relationships, super closeups, Guys in ball caps, blurry headed, sideways, in bed, crazy  Faces with monsters, in cubicles, beside lattice fences,  Strapped into car seats, in the shower, in private airplanes  And parking lots, with Read more

Cynthia Good

Cynthia Good is an award-winning poet, journalist, former TV news anchor, and author of the chapbook, What We Do with Our Hand published last fall by Finishing Line Press. She has written seven books and launched two magazines. Her poems have appeared, or are forthcoming, in numerous journals including Tupelo Quarterly, Terminus Magazine, Waxing and Waning. Her full-length manuscript, In The Thaw of Day, has just been accepted for publication.

ARMED

I didn’t want to raise an unarmed saint after seeing my mother wear that role, always waiting for some relief like an unsheared sheep, she walked her muddy field alone until she fell from the weight of her own worsted wool, unable to feed herself. I was powerless then but Read more

Susan Shea

Susan Shea is a retired school psychologist who was born in New York City, and now lives in a forest in Pennsylvania. She feels like she is coming alive again, able to return to writing poetry. Susan has been published in Plainsongs, Pudding, The Bluebird Word, and The Agape Review. Recently Susan has had poems accepted for Last Stanza Poetry Journal, The Bookends Review, Exstasis, Poetry Breakfast, and four anthologies by The Moonstone Arts Center:The Weight of Motherhood, by Wingless Dreamer: Darkness Within Me, by Pure Slush Books: Lifespan Series:Achievement, and by Poet’s Choice: Nostalgia.

Late Night

“You look tired.” Yeah. “Late night?”  No….no, it’s not that. I’m tired of trying change; of trying to heal from the trauma; of trying to discover a plateau of self-acceptance; of trying to be an adequate person, and better wife; of trying to worry less about being a good mother. 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.

Heart’s Paradox

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.

What is, Depression

Look at me – just standing here in torrents. Brown pain in rusty fluid- it flows from my back- I have a pic line to drain for that I have sin fingers I have cut off toes I have a heart pump shut off emergency switch for when things get 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.

THE ONLY JUSTICE

Butterflies on the butterfly bush bees on the rosemary flowers— It could almost be summer It could almost be 1983 me on retreat in a bikini reading Moby Dick in Provincetown, Mass. It could almost be me notebook and leaky ballpoint in hand, trying to say what can’t be said Read more

Katherine West

Katherine West lives in Southwest New Mexico, near Silver City. She has written three collections of poetry: The Bone Train, Scimitar Dreams, and Riddle, as well as one novel, Lion Tamer. Her poetry has appeared in journals such as Writing in a Woman's Voice, Lalitamba, Bombay Gin, New Verse News, Tanka Journal, Splash!, Eucalypt, Writers Resist, Feminine Collective and Southwest Word Fiesta. New Verse News nominated her poem And Then the Sky for a Pushcart Prize in 2019. In addition she has had poetry appear as part of art exhibitions at the Light Art Space gallery in Silver City, New Mexico, the Windsor Museum in Windsor, Colorado, and the Tombaugh Gallery in Las Cruces, New Mexico. She is also an artist.

Serial Lover

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

Fathers

I give until I break I keep trying even though my mother tells me to let go. I thought I had you back After 7 years of hopes crushed, self-esteem broken I even tell you as much But then you’re gone again And my heart breaks in two just as 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.