I stood with a small group of people, huddled close to one another, as they mourned the dead. The sky overhead rolled with thick grey clouds; a constant churning mass of darkness that spit torrential rain down upon the earth. Water slicked down our coats, and followed the path the of our clothes until it … Continue reading »
Tag Archives: Childhood
My Mental Health by Aaron Poller
To be charming I thought a goal worthy of pursuit. At ten I came to see if charming I might attract attention from Marie, she who did not seem aware how I managed to appear just as she opened the door each day on her walk to school. Lincoln Elementary, Syracuse, New York . Though … Continue reading »
Moon Child by Jason O’Rourke
During the winter it gets dark early in Belfast. You may grudgingly accept that this is the price you pay for those heady long summer nights, but even so, it’s December now, and June is a long way off. It’s difficult to conjure the memory of warmth and blue evening skies when it’s pitch black … Continue reading »
Mishegas by Aaron Poller
A Yiddish term mother would drag out when I was making less then any sense, quite often in my case, to let me know I was loved in many languages. Today I lean into a world may seem what, aligned with love or death, a step away from sitting in my lap, letting me hold … Continue reading »
inspiration comes through – Carolyn Martin
a cuff to the ear sometimes a gut-punch a wrench off the couch to catch that smudge in the Douglas fir pine cone or bird you ask the morning air nothing answers back sometimes un-breaking news unassuming/unassumed until attention’s paid your father’s black lunch pail leaking lacquer smells he inhales your mother’s stew scarfs down … Continue reading »
Cross Step by R. Gerry Fabian
I have a picture of my daughter when she was four. The look of determination on her face is fierce, tenacious and firm. It is a wolverine resolve. Now she is seventeen, with a high school smile and puppy charms. As a basketball player, she glides like a water-spider toward the lay up. Yet every … Continue reading »
A Knot in the Wood by Calla Devlin
It was the first time my father had visited me since I moved to New York and we hadn’t been alone in a room since he helped me pack for grad school. He had paused before folding each article of clothing, then grimaced whenever he tucked something into my suitcase. His expression communicated what he … Continue reading »
