Prompt by Stan Sanvel Rubin

cottonbro studio

Prompt

As if you could say goodbye

to the same person

in the same moment

like a scene from a play

recurring at regular intervals

but with different actors

or talk from both sides

of the Event Horizon

surrounding a black hole

destined to swallow us—

Booya Booya

the offstage hotshot whispers

gesturing like shooing a fly.

It’s his duty to remind us

who we are playing

and where we are this time

in a script

we never memorized.

We go where we are told

in the places marked

which we never noticed

in the shadows that guide us

wary steppers

whose feet fit perfectly

where light must be.

© Stan Sanvel Rubin

Stan Sanvel Rubin

Stan Sanvel Rubin’s poems have appeared in numerous US magazines as well as in China, Canada, Belgium, India, and Ireland. Four full-length collections include Hidden Sequel (Barrow Street Poetry Book Prize) and There. Here. (Lost Horse Press). He lives on the North Olympic Peninsula of Washington.

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Baby by William Ogden Haynes

Szabina Nyiri

Baby

At age fifteen with no husband, she carried him for 

nine months. And as he grew, she experienced the 

trials of morning sickness, the torment from classmates 

in high school, and loads of guilt and regret. She

worried about the uncertainty of the baby’s future 

and her own. The nuns at the Catholic Church told 

her to keep the baby, that she didn’t want to compound 

her sin by having an abortion. He learned her heartbeat

in the darkness of her womb and felt every breath

she took before he saw the light of day. And when

he was born, she held him only briefly before they

took him to a temporary foster home. Then, she knew 

she would never hold him to her breast, learn the 

language of his cries, or sing him a lullaby. After 

she signed the papers, they told her she was courageous 

and doing the right thing, but all she felt was emptiness. 

Somewhere, there was a family waiting with a baby’s 

room newly painted and furnished. A family that would 

hold him confidently with steady hands, not the unsure, 

trembling ones of his biological mother. A family who 

will call him home with a name she will never know. 

She chose his tomorrow over her today, knowing 

that some gifts are too precious to keep, and the deepest  love is sometimes best expressed by saying goodbye.

© William Ogden Haynes

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William Ogden Haynes

William Ogden Haynes is a poet and author of short fiction from Alabama, born in Michigan. He has published several collections of poetry, and many of his poems and short stories have appeared in literary journals and anthologies. http://www.williamogdenhaynes.com

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Other Voices by Ken Gierke

Kássia Melo

Other Voices

The solitude blowing off

the water will stretch the truth of this,

as it replies to words meant only for you.

Sifting your fingers through stones

at the water’s edge, trying to find

that one that speaks to you, do you know

it will look like all the others, once it dries

and the wind has taken its voice?  Gather

its companions, stir them

in your hand, hear them speak.  Know

there are others who have walked this path,

played this scene in their minds.

"Other Voices" first appeared in Ken Gierke’s poetry collection, Glass Awash.

© Ken Gierke

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Ken Gierke

Ken Gierke writes poetry primarily in free verse and haiku. Twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize, he has been featured by numerous journals and anthologies. His poetry collections from Spartan Press are Glass Awash (2022), Heron Spirit (2024), Random Riffs (2025), and The Long Haul (2026). His website: https://rivrvlogr.com/

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Last Mile by Michael Braswell

Hugo Ayala

Last Mile

How will we walk our last mile?

In a shuffling march behind an endless line

of boarding passes on the ready?

Or will we walk an ancient path into an unknown forest

following the scent of evergreen and scattered light 

dancing on a mountain stream.

What will we listen for?

The last call of the train’s whistle 

heading for the certainty of the destination’s end

or will we hear the tree frog’s song of Nature’s call,

following the possible invisible path?

© Michael Braswell

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Michael Braswell

Michael Braswell has published books on ethics, justice issues, and the spiritual journey as well as four short story collections. His poems and stories have appeared in several publications, including Foreshadow, Mobius, and Literary Heist. His most recent books are When Jesus Came to the Cracker Barrel (2024) and Gracious Plenty (2025).

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Last Morning in the Old House by Ruth Harper

Olavi Anttila

Last Morning in the Old House

The first tentative chirps of the day

summon me to the dark porch 

with my coffee. Daylight appears, 

making softly lit candles of the treetops.

The leafless birch is adorned,

a mobile collage of perfect cedar waxwings,

their crests backlit in the brightening dawn.

A slowly expanding spotlight, the sun 

advances through the branches,

revealing tiny black masks across their eyes,

the pale yellow and silky gray of their graceful bodies.

They flit from limb to limb, 

a game of trading places,

flashing their bright red wax spots.

The birds’ soft whistles rise, 

a collective sigh;

the small blessings they bestow sweeten what is left in my cup.

© Ruth Harper

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Ruth Harper

Ruth Harper is a retired counseling professor who began writing poetry during the pandemic lockdown. She has published two chapbooks: (Uncertain Seasons, Finishing Line Press, 2023, and Dreaming the Sturgeon Moon, South Dakota State Poetry Society, 2025).

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Andrew is the Face of Hope by Elaine Sorrentino

RDNE Stock project

Andrew is the Face of Hope

behind the brother 
who joins in powdery mischief,

behind the son
who needs coaxing
to plunge his face in the water
when bobbing for apples at a party,

behind the young boy
who uses his hard-earned money
for frozen treats to share
with younger siblings,

behind the playful uncle
who chases nieces and nephews
around Mammie's house,

behind the thoughtful friend
who spots you a ten
so you don't embarrass yourself
short-tipping the bartender.

He's everyone's son, brother, uncle, friend,
the one whose story inspires hundreds
to lace up their running shoes and jump

into his family's race against time
with shared purpose and determination,
stranger next to stranger - together 

they will carry them over the finish line
and will not rest until his kind, loving,
smiling face makes it home.

©  Elaine Sorrentino

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Elaine Sorrentino

Elaine Sorrentino, author of Belly Dancing in a Brown Sweatsuit (Kelsay Books, 2025) has been published in journals such as Quartet Journal, ONE ART: a journal of poetry, Minerva Rising, Willawaw Journal, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, Gyroscope Review, Sparks of Calliope, Sheila-Na-Gig, Poetry Porch, Ekphrastic Review, and Haikuniverse.

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Poetry by Ed Ahern

WIERZBA PH

Quiet Time

When I was younger and trying to be chicly spiritual

I sought the smug placidity of a windless pond

that would let me achieve the thought silence

that would let me become a boundless whole.

But the clangor of vagrant ideas always intruded

and I’m really only ever calm and mute and still

fleetingly between my squirrel chatterings.

After Midnight

 

We give back our world after midnight.

empty socket windows plucked of light,

houses tiered as umbrous cemetery markers,

roads almost rid of exhausting pests,

streetlight islands sinking into darkness,

and wind sound and chittering now audible.

To walk alone into this is to recognize

how fragile our dominance might be

But, of course, almost no one does.

© Ed Ahern

Ed Ahern

Ed Ahern resumed writing after forty-odd years in foreign intelligence and international sales. He’s had about 650 stories and poems published so far, and thirteen books. He works the other side of writing at Bewildering Stories, where he squats on the review board, and at Scribes Micro.

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Library Card by Ryan Quinn Flanagan

 

Tetyana Kovyrina

Library Card

A young toddler

in blue overalls

and mini-Velcro sneakers

stares up at the librarian,

mesmerized. 

"Now give the lady your card,

so she can give you your books,"

his mother instructs.

He hands the library card over, wide-eyed.

In a tiny grey train conductor's cap.

The librarian

reaching down to give

the kid his books.

Two children's books,

the one on top is

Clifford: The Big Red Dog.

"Say thank you,"

the mother implores

her child.

The kid says nothing

and waves goodbye.

With that clumsy munchkin 

of a hand.

I am in line behind them,

smiling the honest

smile.

And later,

sitting over a sandwich shop

sub and pop,

I think of it again.

An ache in my cheeks

from another deep smile.

The sun's warmth

through the window,

over my lazing

arms.

Sometimes

the world is good.

© Ryan Quinn Flanagan

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Ryan Quinn Flanagan

Ryan Quinn Flanagan is a Canadian-born author who resides in Elliot Lake, Ontario, Canada, with his wife and many bears that rifle through his garbage.  His work has appeared both in print and online in such places as The New York Quarterly, MasticadoresUSA, Evergreen Review, LatinosUSA - Poetry Bookshelf, Borderless Journal, GloMag, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, and The Oklahoma Review.  He enjoys listening to the blues and cruising down the TransCanada in his big blacked-out truck.

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Factory Workers on Their Way to Work by Ruth Holzer

Factory Workers on Their Way to Work by Helene Schjerfbeck

Factory Workers on Their Way to Work

(after the painting by Helene Schjerfbeck)

Their faces pale with fatigue, 

their downcast eyes empty,

in pre-dawn darkness two women

hurry to their shift at the woolen mill.

All day they’ll stand at the spinning machines

surrounded by a racket of gears grinding,

pulleys whining, and the ceaseless clatter of the looms 

echoing around the brick walls.

They’ll inhale dust and fibers,

exhale another scrap of themselves

until the thin twined threads

of their lives fray and break.  

© Ruth Holzer

Ruth Holzer

Ruth Holzer has written ten chapbooks, most recently On the Way to Man in Moon Passage (Dancing Girl Press) and Float (Kelsey Books). Her poems have appeared in Blue Unicorn, California Quarterly, Freshwater, POEM, Slant, and elsewhere. She is a multiple Pushcart and Best of the Net nominee.

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