Nothing To See Here

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Grady Pearson saw something in his cornfield that would forever change the way he viewed his life.

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…heard a squawk—kind of like the goose call that comes out of a police cruiser. Blinking red and blue lights danced on the window shade, so I figured they must have nabbed somebody. The trouble was, they were behind my house, in my cornfield.

I peeled back the shade, and what did I see but a crap-load of state police parked sort of in a big circle. The ground mist was so thick, I barely made…


By Arthur M. Doweyko

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Binders

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Sometimes looking back to the past can give you insights into the present.

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…time of year always seems to turn me inward. The gray skies, cooler temperatures, and often-inclement weather feed my need to hibernate, and the warmth and coziness I find indoors lend itself to sitting with my mind and turning its eye to the past.

Earlier this year, I made the difficult decision to end a career that had seen me through nine years of momentous life changes. It was a career I loved but I was no longer in love with it. It was a career that…


By Kate Williams

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Rumpas Grumpas

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One of my first poetic endeavors with sea-faring poetry

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…O' buoyant rumpus grumpus; er' steamy clam'd drenched breaths do'eth shower mine hope's, when chanced I lay floating dreamingly, hammocked 'mognst the stays, you drifted seemingly, truly unafraid past this oaken'd ship as I sway.....lo', tis thine sanguineness, er' Pacific blue spray touched mine eternal spirit, O' soul, 'ore I feel in love with cetatious creatures at....

By A.T.Hirsch

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Rain Song

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Dreams and ghosts. Memories and midnight. Was I lonely or alone?

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…cheap night.

It was always the same thing. A dirty street, across from a muddy park, down from a polluted river.

She would sit on the bench at the transit stop with her brown bag poison. Sometimes she would hold it up to the sky, as an offering; sometimes she would just drink it.

After a few choked back slugs she would begin to sing. A throat warble, really, but she tried.

Songs about heaven and songs about horses.

One night as I was watching her party for one…


By Shauna Woodbury

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Summer Memories

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The swimming pool is long gone, but the memories are forever bound.

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…rocks are sharp under my bare feet.

The concrete is warm from the summer sun.

My towel is bundled on the ground.

It’s to the water I run.

A whistle blows and a lifeguard yells, “Walk!”

The heat of the day is beading on my skin.

I hear the shouts from children splashing.

I jump in.

From the diving board I hear…


By Sonja McGiboney

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A Lament for Lost Love and Youth

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Alas and alack! Dreadful and oppressive are the inescapable realities of becoming older and being a lovelorn bachelor after my spring and youthful prime.

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…mourn for the death of my erstwhile youth,

a time of innocence and naive bliss

which hid from me life's dark, unpleasant truth,

but for ever holds all the joys I miss;

a time of mannish beauty, brawn and thews,

as of a Greek god in his peerless prime

like Heracles of fabled strength, sinews

and might that's of renown from mythic time.

But, O Desire!...how do I most long for

your renewal (in my…


By Ngoc Nguyen

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