This Land Which Built Me
This land remembers, a constant echo, wherever I wander,whether between halfway places or brittle stormsover the fence at the edge of our woods near our homea […]
To the Ringer With a Toothache on a Plane
It was 2008. I was exhausted, traveling solo through the country, tired of airports already, and had only just begun this adventure. But there you were, […]
Happy Holidays
The rain fell relentlessly – the type of heavy rain that soaked right through your clothes within a minute. The grey denseness of the sky contradicted […]
The Spirit of Ratnapur, Part 2
Be sure to read Part 1 first. Rahmat’s voice turned Shubir’s mind from Maya to the present moment. “What does all the fuss of the world […]
The Spirit of Ratnapur
Ratnapur looks like a dreamy village hidden in abundant green foliage and washed with bubbling rivers and rivulets. But like any other place on earth, it […]
Quarterly & Special Issues
Submissions next open from June 1 to August 31 2024
January 31, 2024
Enjoy the twists and turns, unexpected results, heart-warming joys and bittersweet moments of this special issue, inspired by the theme of pirates and seafaring adventures.
January 30, 2024
“He unlocked his word-hoard.” That must mean something still. And so must my forebears, who used different languages…
January 29, 2024
Amelia clearly came from a family with a soul, which went a long way to explaining her qualities, abundant and estimable as they were. The Shuter St. building was called “Amelia’s Place.”
January 28, 2024
Twirling wide circles to approving stares
then climbs a rope in the spotlight’s bright hue
laser hot but she’s a prism revealed.
January 27, 2024
How the Earth Blankets our History by Chapters Archeologists are Worms and Bugs and Burrowing Creatures…
January 26, 2024
At the front desk I asked the concierge if she had seen Amelia. The concierge furrowed her brow and narrowed her eyes. “Amelia? Amelia? I don’t recall anyone named Amelia.” The concierge must have been new, to not know Amelia, although I could have sworn she was an old hand. “What’s the full name?”
January 24, 2024
You looked at me. I sprawl like a spoilt garden at the estuary of spring.
January 23, 2024
On my way, I thought I heard them talking about me. As I neared the table they stopped talking. Zoey looked guilty. Zoey always looked guilty. When I sat down they stared at me with – oh, I don’t know – sorrow, pity: something like that. In response I opened my hands palms up, and said, “What?” as I looked from one to the other.
January 20, 2024
Doctors frowned at me as they admonished: Be sure you get your mammograms every year. The fibrous tissue is very dense with calcium deposits. We need a mammo every year for comparison.
January 19, 2024
Here they call them palmetto bugs but they’re just cockroaches, really. Normally, I would have murdered the tiny intruder but on this morning, on this particular day, I awoke with a newfound appreciation for life: for any and all life.
January 17, 2024
But the highlight of the event was the momentous meeting between Luna Lyngdoh and Meban Tsangpa, a Samanera or novice monk. A woke, computer-trained graduate, he had been inducted into the monastery as a trainee. He followed many of the cardinal religious precepts but had not yet attained higher ordination which would make him a Bhikkhu or a full-fledged monk.
January 16, 2024
Meghalaya in monsoon — the perfect time to explore and embrace the beauty of the Sacred Woods. Luna smiled to herself as she recalled this much-loved refrain from her days of childhood and youth. She walked past the moss-slickened stones, boulders flecked with the chartreuse lichen, stopping to admire the white coral mushrooms that were so famous here.
January 15, 2024
but you also forget the names of acquaintances, people you knew things you were good at, national and state capitals…
January 14, 2024
The email from British Airways popped up just as my sister and I arrived at Glasgow International Friday night before our flights home: “We're really sorry that your upcoming flights have been canceled.” A bonus day in Edinburgh? I knew just what I’d do.
January 13, 2024
I couldn’t understand why you kept calling our parents, the phone ringing repeatedly before Dad silenced it. “He wants money,” Dad whispered knowingly to Mom. I was too young to understand that you’d done this all before: drunk texts and calls, expectations of payment, always late at night.
January 9, 2024
We had been friends for over twenty-five years. More than a quarter of a century. I don’t know why I feel the need to emphasise the length of time we’d known each other, as if the more time invested the deeper the friendship. There is perhaps a strong correlation but no causation between length of knowing and love.
January 6, 2024
She rummaged through his coat pockets for a flask. He had, after all, the day before sworn off liquor, having literally gambled the shirt off his back in some bar’s backroom.
January 1, 2024
One weekend on Chinese New Year, we gathered in Trafalgar Square for the performance of the lion dance. Amid the throngs of people, we cheered and clapped for the dancers. We swayed to the traditional music.
December 31, 2023
I breathe and release the “now” for the true moment.
The snow swirls rapidly around me
whispering poems until I am lost in a personal snow storm.
December 30, 2023
What if I accept that I am, as you say, too much? Too much of stomach and too much of sag…