Tag: family

Eruptive Uncoupling

Ronna Russell

At Temple Bar with T, discussing experiences. She looked out the window, not meeting my gaze. Turning her cocktail on its napkin. She told me her roommate had shown her a profile picture on a gay website of someone they thought looked like my husband, Robert. Barrel chest and a Read more

Ronna Russell

This chapter is an excerpt from my memoir "The Uncomfortable Confessions of a Preacher's Kid." No one escapes religious cults without sexual damage and I was no exception, nor was my father. He came out as gay in mid-life, as did my own husband decades later. The oppression of religion tentacled into my self perception and took decades to unthread. This chapter shows how I got started reconnecting to myself. While I had no difficulty leaving religion behind as a teenager, I had no experience interacting in the secular world, like a real-life Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt without the humor and good looks.

Mothers Intuition

Jesse Albatrosov

It’s the feeling of afternoon storms rolling in pale skies dimpled with stretch marks, lights dim as the rooms of stone castles in fantasies, smoke lingering from candles dragged gingerly through narrow halls. You can taste the moisture as it moves, tentative cool, dewy probes enveloping your skin and swallowing Read more

Jesse Albatrosov

Jesse is an emerging poet living and writing in the Central Florida area, with her husband and five children. She moonlights as a seamstress for her Etsy shop and is currently working toward her Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing and English with a concentration on Poetry. Her work is published or forthcoming in THAT Literary Review, Black Fox Literary Magazine, Mothers Always Write, Press 53's Prime Number Magazine, Streetlight Magazine and others. You can find her online at www.jessealbatrosov.com or on social media.

Like My Son, Who I Lost

Elisabeth Horan

He reminded me of my son; my son who I lost. He had the same hair, brown and tousled; the same eyes, vacant, almond oceans of angst. I still can’t breathe from the vacuous loss, he walked away one night after we fought. He was doing drugs, I could tell 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.

Zombie Nation

Jacqueline Cioffa

I have met too many friends and foes that say they don’t care about politics. They don’t care about equality, racism, mental illness, sexual harassment, and gun violence shrugging their shoulders brushing off the uncomfortable, the taboo. It’s not happening to me. That’s the poor man’s excuse, cowardice is plain 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.

Scars

Carly Zee

Proud muscle Battered and bruised A child, proud of strength And power That came with skinned knees and bruised shins Launching – Into flight Or fury To all who opposed Her fierce will   But, they admonished If you have scars No one will marry you Unattractive knees Belied her Read more

Carly Zee

Carly Zee is a poet and writer and lover of the finer things in life — like good wines, dark chocolate, and erotica. She finds myself seeking pleasure over reason on far too many occasions, and will, in all likelihood, continue to do so. To come along for the ride, you can connect with Carly through https://carlyzee.wordpress.com/

What Do You Mean There is no Such Thing as Half Jewish?

Michelle Dinnick

What do you mean there is no such thing as half Jewish? This was my question when I saw Alyssa Pinsker’s article in The Forward on February 8th. My first thought, as I started reading it, was but I’m half Jewish! I can relate to so many things that Pinsker Read more

Michelle Dinnick

I am a contributing author in the most recent Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Spirit of Canada, and a quarter finalist in the ScreenCraft Short Screenplay contest. My writing has won several awards, and appeared in The Globe and Mail and a number of local magazines and newspapers in Alliston, including The Briar Crier, Total Sports, Voice of the Farmer, and Focus 50 Plus. Last summer, my short story “Lightning Strikers” was made into a series in the Focus 50 + Newspaper because fans asked for more! You can find me online at www.commuterlit.com; www.fiftywordstories.com and www.michelledinnick.com.

Scar Tissue

Cate Carlyle

I cringe every time Dad touches her. He compulsively straightens the Blue Jays pin my brother attached to her favorite blouse, the yellow one I bought her in the States last summer. He rearranges her crossed hands, over then under, then back over again. Her fingers are chalky and stiff Read more

Cate Carlyle

Cate Carlyle is a librarian and the author of two young adult novels and a library reference book. Her short story “The Brothers” was shortlisted in the WFNS Nova Writes competition. Cate lives in Nova Scotia with her partner and supportive first-reader Bruce and their fur baby, Zoey.