Mangoes, 1969

by Lee Cooper

It was a good year for mangoes,
when we lived on rice, canned tuna,
Kool-Aid with too little sugar,
and the mangoes everyone gave us. Continue reading

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What I Mean When I Say I Want to Hold My Grandmother When She Was a Baby

by Marianne Kunkel

A joke.
But really, I mean it—
cradle her warm, wiggly body
dripping in lace blankets.
Eggshell-sleek
face, eyes like dark pencil marks
gouging paper. Continue reading

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From a Drained Concrete Pool

by Everett Jones

My skateboard throws me off, front wheels
caught on a rock in the shallow
end. My knees kiss pavement and instinct shuts
my eyes before I glide Continue reading

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Last Light

by Vanessa Blakeslee

Three days before Columbus Day weekend, the Aurora borealis was predicted to shine over New England with the best chances for clear night skies over coastal Maine, and the elderly father insisted that his sons drive him to see the phenomenon. He and their mother had always yearned to see the Northern Lights but had missed their chance, now that she had passed away in August. A trip to see the Northern Lights was something he wanted to do on what would have been their anniversary weekend, his first as a widower, to honor her memory. Continue reading

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That Ship Has Sailed

by AJ Saur

And, yet, I stand at the end of this pier
in ovation of the horizon—its long stretch

of periphery, the far wings of a seagull
from which you are certain to emerge in a bow Continue reading

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