Poetry

Beta splendens (Siamese Fighting Fish) by Paulette A. Pashibin Beautiful carnivores: curious, watchful, with strange appetites. Females eat their eggs. Strong males build bubble nests, fortresses against mother hunger. All are selectively bred — like you, daughter — for…

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Keisha Molby-Baez Seeds Planted My birth name Keisha My heavenly name Child of God My family names daughter, sister, niece, aunt My union name wife My universal name friend My poet name Coco The best name of all, Mother…

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Julia Lisella Charlotte’s Zinnias Each pop of brazen orange or hot pink quivers as Charlotte’s legs cross over her hand-made fence her basket following in the mess of multicolored swiss chard and flowering basil. I head the tops…

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Catherine Esposito Prescott Palm Blossoms From down the block they look like a layer of snow. Hundreds have fallen from the palm tree, flowers white and yellow- green, round, orbital like planets from another galaxy with tens of…

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Jen Karetnick Brief Portrait of Millennials as a Nebulizer; Or, There Are Reasons to Breathe Without disruption, without deliberate thought. Without disconnection like a dropped call on a highway far away from a cellphone tower. Without asking permission…

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Maria Mazziotti Gillan Even After All These Years Even after all these years, a plate of spaghetti gives me comfort, the food my mother made three times a week when I was a child in the 17th St.…

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