Issue 4

May 2010

May 2010

Cover Photo © 2007 monsoon 6 by Sukanto Debnath under the creative commons cc-by-sa 2.o license.

The most significant moments we experience in life are those involving transitions, and our most significant transitions are made easier when we have someone at our side to support us.

The poetry and short story in this issue focus on moments of transition from the life we know to a life we have yet to discover; on moments when we recognize what we have learned or what we have yet to learn; and on moments when it seems our future is nothing more than chance.

I hugged him again, and made him

hug me back, extra hard,

hoping you would feel it, too,

so far away.

Maria Basile

the old ones knew words were magic

chanted liturgies

rolled down temple steps

floods of words to hold the vessels whole

and deny the stones that could shatter

Janet Sunderland

But three days in

the wound screamed red and set the

fragile order to wobble as mother hid.

Annmarie Lockhart

He is a caterpillar taken by the butterfly.

He takes my hand as if to say:

His image is best seen by looking away.

Michael T. Milbocker

We’re both unsure

of how I’d receive you,

if we began again,

different people, infinitely older

in our haze of grief and need ...

Jeanie McLeod

... with all the incessant beeps of mechanized

towers infusing you with life force

and all the dull pictures of far-away

coasts—oh, how we crave release

Gregory W. Randall

He cried his first tears after he left

the warm waters of his mother’s womb

to begin life in an imperfect world

Judith Bader Jones

Nobody told us that Daddy was dying.

We knew by Mama’s closed eyes disjointed from her smile,

a gesture of deceit too kind to misconstrue.

Larina Warnock

Because she knows that dying can sometimes skew

perception, she listens for echoes.

Christine Klocek-Lim

I brush her hair back and kiss her forehead. I pray that she understands and that what I am doing is right.

Elaina Turpin

maybe I never realized –

I wanted to take

your chapped hands

out of the dishwater

let them nest in mine ...

Jodi Hottel

In dark rooms your hand grasps mine

and I’m calm for a moment knowing the stars

will never be this close again.

Stephen Bunch

                                                    On drift

of memories and eulogy you rode;

you laughed aloud that all was well with you. ...

Murray Alfredson

For years, she helped him remember himself,

arranged trophies on the shelf in his study

Scot Siegel

Holding you while I whispered in your ear,

I’m sure you squeezed my hand. A hand hug,

like the thousands we shared before.

Stacey Dye

There’s so much living to do

on a terminally ill hospital bed.

Vinita Agrawal