Hope by Carlene M. Gadapee Remember that time you spent five whole dollars on a ticket to win a calf at the fair? What you thought we’d do with a little cow, I have no i […]

Let the Leaves Turn by Fred Wilbur   I possess a book on reading at the beach. How to Read a North Carolina Beach* is one of those few books you need a beach to enjoy fully, one […]

We Need Appointments to See Friends by Gerald Yelle Because we didn’t ask Abraham to do anything we wouldn’t do ourselves. We don’t owe him any explanation. Let him think it’s revenge in advance […]

A Dead Love by Chibuike Ukah My father stared at me like a rose full of lint. He was wondering how living haunted me, spreading through my face and body, how it serenaded me […]

Poetry Contest Winners for 2025 by Sharon Ackerman and Fred Wilbur   We are excited to announce the Streetlight Poetry Contest winners for this year. But first, several observations: we are pleased with your […]

Thinking of Queen Elizabeth While Waiting for My Son at Dance Class and The Solitary Mare, 2 poems by Sarah Lilius Thinking of Queen Elizabeth While Waiting for My Son at Dance Class The Queen’s body, enclosed in leadand English Oak, shifts forward for six h […]

'Round Midnight by Terry Huff                                                      for Thelonious Monk I have a table for one at The Five Spot Cafe. Monk is on stage with Miles […]

Playing Mahler at Minus Twenty by Katrin Talbot Windchill, the minor key that blows in with the horns Tremolo, a shimmer of ice, the roads we drive to rehearsal Crunchy German, heftig, […]

A Confession by Fred Wilbur We usually consider mea culpas as good things, honest actions, purges of guilt, wiping clean the chalk smudged slates (to start again.) We want to […]

Satellite Dream Dish and Blackberry Picking, 2 poems by Charles Mines Satellite Dream Dish Another dream where I’m in trouble for being naked.And the NSA is scoffing at my latest memoir, Songs for Getting Drunk i […]

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 […]