Seeing the empty swing, hanging from the black willow’s thickest branch, I want to test its seat, I want to steady myself on its warped wood...

I get up to the news set down my phone feed my dog make coffee check email Twitter a checklist I've developed that takes hours breaking ...

these boxcar doors slide open with great clamors of fear and trembling shake our cups spilling brown coffee onto pine pallets— we dream gene...

The cat's in his usual place, stretched out against my outstretched legs. The bedside clock reads 3:00 a.m.; what's that to him in ...

Sun breaks through heavy cloud cover, shines like a spotlight on her memorial tree. Still a sapling; my hand can encircle its trunk, slende...

          after B.C. and W.C.W. One by one they trickle to their seats. They expect another day of scribbling in their notebooks what the...

He had 21,000 rounds of ammunition 5 illegal guns and a list of enemies but in the end the soldier only shot himself. Matthew Borczon is the...

After a nightmare full of the dead children of Afghanistan carrying the dead children of Syria I wake up to carry my 8 yr old up the stairs ...

in the exurbs cornfields exhale walmart bags Maureen Kingston’s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Akitsu Quarterly, Blue Earth Revie...

Coming to terms with that last offering from a crushed pack of Salems now snuffed down to the filter, you sift frantically through the overf...

I’d prefer apathy to his blatant hatred of the woman he’s falling out of love with. She hollers and he responds. I have to watch. I hold hi...

I learned about the world in the rear seat of my parents' car. Not the way you're thinking, you dirty bird—age six or seven, feignin...

The harsh scream of a power saw – in a towering fir, a man climbing awkwardly upward, intent on baring the trunk, until – with a muted crash...

I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror, and I saw my father; not the one who raised me, but my real parent, my biological father. My mo...

is inevitable given the level of impact, windshield with cranium, one on one. Evidence indisputable. And yet, you stammer otherwise, saying...

Black-feathered body disappears into clear water, dark under midday sun. Only a white striped-face reappears, far from its dive to the shall...

year after year that stack of wood for a treehouse Stephen Toft is a poet and homelessness worker who lives in Lancaster, UK with his girl...

looking for answers in the alps - where the high mountains never lose their snow Stephen Toft is a poet and homelessness worker who live...

clear night - wild ponies drinking from a pool of stars Stephen Toft is a poet and homelessness worker who lives in Lancaster, UK with his...

Monday puts the coffee on                 dark kitchen                                  cold tiles   hot water hisses and cries ...