Now She Resembles James Dean by Eric Forsbergh   Do you notice anything? Her comment, laid down like a mark. Often I’m the kid caught napping in a class. But not today. She came home wi […]

Our Age of Irony by Fred Wilbur What is the color of irony? This may be a silly notion, but we have given color designations to various kinds of writing. Yellow Journalism (today’s C […]

Emily as She Ate the Flower by Darren Demaree If you can fit the beauty in your mouth what makes you brave, to spit it out or to let the giver of gifts see you make it yours forever? […]

My Husband Texting by Maureen Clark he texts me a photograph of the bear scat he found under the chokecherry bush which is bent to the ground stripped on one side of all its red […]

Becoming by Bill Glose When the ceramic tile shattered, I was ashamed I hadn’t cared better for this piece of art created by a friend, one part of a quadriptych. All I […]

Respite by Joseph Kleponis All is quiet; the winds have subsided; The storm’s dissonance is behind us. Sideways rain and sleet that tore through the night Have jeweled b […]

Self Driving to Eternity by Chibuike Ukah I stretched out my legs before me, ready to bury my dead bodies, when my boss invited me to his office and made me an immoral offer. He pleaded […]

Questions to Ask a Poem by Fred Wilbur Poem, come in, sit down. How are you getting along? Are people reading your ordinary troubles? Let’s talk about that. (I hear my fatherly voice: p […]

A Plum on a Tree by Roselyn Elliott   In the ER, we try to save them all, yet, each death of a stranger is a small death inside me, an accumulation of failed effort that […]

Still Life with Bulldozer and Backhoe by Cindy Buchanan   In the empty lot across the street they graze on ground scrape and grind — diesel sculptors of land and sound that rumble words shatter li […]

The Audience Beneath by Holly Day The worms are writing a song in my garden, rustling their slick bodies through the leaves in a rising crescendo, inspired by the rain. If one were […]

Trick of the Eye: Fresh Roasted by Richard Elliott Martin If you want a free lunch, All you have to do is smash, bleed, and work for it. Would you like some peanuts for lunch? Free sample, the sign on the […]

Teaching by J.R. Solonche Teaching, too, is labor. Everyday to be up to the task, everyday the master of a hundred worlds, of casual words, and of causal words, to confront […]

A Bragging Humility by Fred Wilbur   “It is true that one can write nothing readable unless one constantly struggles to efface one’s own pers […]

First Car Accident by Alisha Goldblatt Tucked in her shell of gutsy metal, an errant art teacher spun my car into a snow bank. We shook after the collision, the grab handle, Jesus, […]

Jack Gilbert Keeps Lilacs Alive in his Head by Deborah Doolittle   The lilacs hid the remains of a porch it used to screen. The hints of joints and steps leading up and between. Stone remnants of a […]

When the Spring Winds are Strong, Wolf Spiders Balloon by Gary Grossman   They’re up on the branch tips, all eight legs en pointe— one hundred and four chitinous arachnids, their tutus matching leafless twigs. Thes […]

Maxed Out by Jason Montgomery This year my credit card company sent me a birthday card. In simple red, white and blue it wished me a happy birthday from Credit One. It is nice […]

Water, Water, Everywhere: Lessons of Water by Fred Wilbur   “If the misery of our poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.” —Charles Darwin, Voyage of the Beagle […]

The red onion by Deborrah Corr Deborrah Corr has earned an Honorable Mention in Streetlight’s 2024 Poetry Contest The red onion is a purple globe. I hold it, let my skin adore […]