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Beth Brown Preston
from OXYGEN II (Moonstone Press, 2022). The Painter You sat with brushes in hand and the light flowing above and below, the prayer like paper, the light illumined all our sacred trees. Somehow, we forgot all our raucous and joyous past loves when I asked you to listen for the screen door’s slam and the…
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S. Abdulwasi’h Olaitan
previously published in Ta Adesa. S. Abdulwasi’h Olaitan is a Nigerian introverted poet and essayist. He writes from a hole 54 kilometers away from Kwara State. He is deeply devoted to God and lover of his parents. He’s the author of the longlisted chapbook Life, An Objet D’art (Arting Arena Poetry Chapbook Prize 2023). His…
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David Cameron
Yellowjackets hover over muscadines split and fermenting in warm summer grass. I pick and pop a purple orb into my cool child’s mouth well versed in the rural art of taking sustenance when and where it is offered with bounty overflowing. I bite and break the leather-tough skin tasting grape essence and spitting seeds that…
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Marina Ramil
I give you permission to crack my ribs if ever comes the day I stop breathing. There you will find a velveteen rabbit, a small recreation of the long-dead lizard, and my son, covered in wheaten fur, glad for a night of sleep someplace warm. If, in the process, you erroneously press on the greying…
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Blair Martin
Of All of Nature’s Leaves, Envious most of autumn’s vibrant declining; the toasted oranges, gentle browns & cranberry reds. More photogenic than the fuzzy budding of spring, the firm green in summer’s heat, the slumps of winter’s decomposing. Not so though for many humans; we, especially in the white West, crave only the new, freshly…