I Fail My Step-Daughter

by Cecil Morris
I was her second-chance, replacement dad, / a do-over daddy meant to keep her safe

Knotworks

by Terry Trowbridge
The shortest unit of time in my life / was the space between undoing one shoelace / and about to undo the other.

Two Poems

by Sheree La Puma
Give me silence & sadness, a taste of citrus swallowed after a shot, something bitter like daughters who have parted ways.

Confession

by Hayden Saunier
I fell in love with a field of rye. / It happened this spring for the first time and I am not young.

The Night Yard

by Ellen Romano
My mother has asked me if I see / wild animals around town. / She moves in and out of lucidity

Toward the End of March

by Justin Hunt
Pollen dusts our yard. The oaks, heavy / with seed, rake the past from wind, / and an old friend’s voice comes to me

Two-Man Saw

by B. Fulton Jennes
Dutch elm disease took its toll / on the once-lush sentinel by our pond— / a titan I often climbed to the very top

Night Flight

by Judy Kaber
It’s been a long two weeks and I’m ready to leave. / I ask myself: / Are you really the man I once married?

Sleep While the Baby Sleeps

by Jackleen Holton
Sleep while the baby sleeps, / they tell you, and so you begin, like one having to learn / everything all over again, to take sleep in small sips