By Ace Boggess No hat. Sunburnt, mud-flecked cheeks.He works hard, trimming bushesinto elephants, piling leaves,digging a trench by the fence linefor his own reasons. “What’s your nameagain?” I ask. He…

by Sheila Murray-Nellis Every day for weekssmoke muffles the mountains.Particulate on the incoming breathflattens each hue to haze, as flames lick their wayacross the beetle-killed back countrystressed beyond endurance, sparkedby…

by Michael Dechane The wind from the west is stillunmaking these mountains:each branch and blade tip pointstoward the sea, the sun that rises.From the summit I see around myself.See winter…

advent by Sally O’Brien Short days. The dark settles on me like ablanket kept in a damp garage. Every day,I swear I wake up later and later. Tuesday the dawn…

By Devon Balwit The Koi in today’s pondknow nothingof yesterday’s earthquakes.They swim in and out of sky,light reflecting throughJapanese maples, all opalescentscales, mouths openingto the same roundnesswhether or not hundredsof…

Under sun, the golden crosses shine
When the sun bursts through the rapid clouds
Gleaming in sympathy.

“there is nothing special about this suffering”

Her head is in my hands
now. Hair shaven, eyes
closed. A yin and yang
of skin and scar.

A visitor from outer space,
this alien flames from the back hall’s
dark floor tile. As if this were its target
from the beginning.