Salvage by J.L. Orango

After the wind,
we pick shingles from the garden,
find a wheelbarrow overturned
beside the shed.

The rosebush has lost its trellis.
Still, its thorns catch my sleeve
when I step too close.

All afternoon we repair
what we can reach.
By evening the yard resembles itself
enough for the dog to sleep.



J.L. Orango is a Canadian writer based in Kamloops, British Columbia. Her poems and stories explore memory, family, work, and the private histories behind ordinary lives. Her work has appeared in Literary Yard and Synchronized Chaos.

Vanilla Ice Cream by Catherine Wald

In the photo, on the train to New York City,
I'm dressed up in patent leather and crinoline.

My legs jiggle with excitement.
It's just me, my dad and his camera.

On 42nd Street, the Horn & Hardart
automat -- a gleaming stainless-

steel emporium with child-sized windows
that displayed sandwiches, soups,

apple and cherry pie slices.
Your father hands you the nickels,

which you slip into a slot to open the
door and release your dish.

I choose vanilla ice cream—my favorite—
a wish small enough to put into words.



Catherine Wald is a poet, teacher and tour guide based in a Manhattan apartment the size of her laptop. Poems have appeared in American Journal of Nursing, Chronogram, Gravel, J Journal, Minerva Rising, New York Times Metro Diary, Quarterday Review and Snapdragon Journal, among others. She has published a chapbook, Distant, burned-out stars, and a nonfiction book, The Resilient Writer.

A gathering of daisies by Janette Schafer

          after a photograph by Keith Hileman

I only knew her as Beautiful Shannon,
the yellow-haired girl from second grade
in tortoise shell glasses, two perfect braids,
always wearing red.

I picked them by the railroad track
on my way to school.
She would pop off their heads,
push them between thick silk folds
in the turns of her hair.

In the morning, her sweet face—
Nettie, where’s my flowers?
And my hands full of dirt.



Janette Schafer is a poet, photographer, playwright, and realtor living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She holds an MFA in Poetry from Chatham University and has authored three poetry chapbooks and served as chief editor of two anthologies. Her writing and photographs have appeared or are forthcoming in The Missouri Review, SWWIM, ONE ART, Vox Populi, and The Literary Underground. A winner of the Academy of American Poets Prize, she has also been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

Haiku by Scott Wiggerman

old waitress
her listless shuffle
serving no one



Albuquerque poet and artist Scott Wiggerman is the author of four books of poetry, including his newest, Beginning and Ending with Emily: Ghazals and Golden Shovels, a collection inspired by lines and themes of Emily Dickinson.