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You are my anchor,
my lighthouse,
my comforting blanket,
the earth that reminds me that my roots are stronger than I think
when I feel ungrounded…
The Painful Comforts of Loneliness: A Review of Paddy McAloon’s I Trawl The Megahertz
This work soothes the heart as both a lullaby and an ode to the lonely, but its comfort also carries a clear warning: If we spend our lives living in the fantasies in our head, we will lose the lives we were meant to live.
Plant a Tree on Arbor Day
When you plant a tree, you sow the thoughts of leafy morns and lovely afternoons. You plant the thoughts of beauty growing beneath the countless suns and moons…
Celebration in a Tree City
Trees, trees, trees
everywhere we look
line the streets.
as though in a book.
Elegy for a Tree That Forgot My Name
I carved a heart you swallowed in bark
not out of hunger,
but ritual.
Every autumn you let go
more easily than I do.
Every spring,
you grew further from the boy who named you.
Quarterly & Special Issues
Submissions next open from June 1 to August 31 2024
April 18, 2023
Alex had a tendency to slide in and out of a dreamworld, he envisioned he was a top Noir Detective with a woman/dame waiting on his desk, a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, and that he could move in and out of the shadows, hiding in the dark night.
April 15, 2023
Unintentionally, the MockingOwl Roost family chose this topic, Unknown & Unseen, for our first triannual issue in 2023 for a time in which the family would […]
April 14, 2023
Emma Jansen returns to the estate of her childhood when she learns of its planned demolition, which was the rumored inspiration for the Larrabee home in Sabrina. She can’t imagine her beautiful home as a planned high end condo community
March 24, 2023
Pallavi carefully put Junti to bed and sat beside her. The sounds of rain vividly reminded her of one such rainy evening three years ago when Junti had come to the orphanage with two other children.
March 18, 2023
March 11, 2023
Time rules the universe but we’ve boycotted It And it doesn’t rule us, I didn’t mean lord over us, we’ve chosen our ruler and our own planet, another version of the universe I didn’t mean continent
March 1, 2023
[You] assumed for sure you were one day going
to wear a crown, reigning puffed-up, beloved…
February 25, 2023
February 24, 2023
“The alarm. I have to go home today.” Not being able to take his breath, she sits up and lights a cigarette from her pack on the nightstand. She spots the watery rum and coke also on her nightstand and downs it. When the clock radio clicks and an announcer’s laugh shoots out of it, she hits the snooze button again and allows herself nine more minutes of staring off into space. After eight minutes, she unplugs the radio so that the alarm does not get Rob up.
February 22, 2023
o the body, white is like peaceful waters flowing
The orange glow of twilight twinkles that the world may rest…
February 20, 2023
February 18, 2023
Is there an edge of the world? Idon’t know, but if there is, we saton it, tossed pebbles into the foamhundreds of feet below us.The few […]
February 17, 2023
She looked around and saw only a sea of sand. Dunes that swept out for as far as the eye could see. She decided to walk, for what else was there to do but walk? But in what direction should she go? The only path she could take was forwards. So, she walked forwards across the sand, her bare feet sinking with each step.
February 16, 2023
More than a decade ago, I had the privilege of accompanying my daughter, Rita, on a unique journey. She rode her bicycle or walked from the southernmost tip of Florida, all the way to Canada.
February 15, 2023
Save a chair, the room
is empty, even of dust.
The picture is small, little
detail, but the chair
would seem to be black walnut…
February 14, 2023
Welcome to the first issue of the MockingOwl Roost in 2023 – the All the Colors issue.
February 13, 2023
February 11, 2023
Gone is the sphere to deal with conflict and joy. All interactions moving along the cyber world. They need to learn to maintain eye contact or participate in meaningful conversation.
February 9, 2023
Every title begins with the phrase ‘The Cat Who’. The reason is simple: A cat is the crime-solver. His devoted human is merely the tool he uses to impart justice, and the actions described in the title are a clue...
February 8, 2023
