by Cheryl Isaac
A cigarette held by shaky fingers
The coffee mug vibrates
Bombs explode in Syria
More dead in Nice
Thunder crashes in Georgia
The nerves tighten their grip
The saucer shatters Continue reading
Shards
Filed under Poetry
Grief and Other Armageddons
by Celeste Noelani McLean
It is the baby’s still birthday, so
I dust his urn with my fingertips
The only care-taking I do now
He is dead
The other children get my
Unremarkable busy-day parenting,
Utility of soft white sandwich bread and
Tight-as-you-can embraces Continue reading
Filed under Poetry
On Safari
by Marty Carlock
The adapter plug wouldn’t fit into the socket. What did he expect, they were staying in a tent, for god’s sake. It wasn’t a bad tent, as tents go – mosquito netting over its openings, deck out front with armchairs and tables, queen-sized bed thick with pillows and comforters, ceiling fan, reading lamps, arm chairs, bathroom, showers inside and out. Yes, a shower outside set into something that looked like half a tree trunk, so you could sunbathe and look out on the savanna and watch the elephants walk by in the distance while you were washing. There were even doors built into the side of the canvas walls so you didn’t have to deal with tent flaps and other inconveniences. He guessed if they had to stay in a tent it was as good as they would get. Continue reading
My Fiftieth Year in California
by Sharon Fain
Soon the longest night of the year
will bear down on these trails
near my home, a darkness
that for the ancients was like a death.
At New Grange and Stone Henge
they lit torches, waited it out. Continue reading
Filed under Poetry
The Theory of Everything
by Matthew Fairchild
The Standard Model and M-Theory
No matter how big the object, everything can be broken down into the same elements, the ones on the periodic table we had to memorize in chemistry class. Those elements are in turn created by protons, neutrons, and electrons. Protons and neutrons are made up of quarks (up, down, strange, charm, top, bottom), leptons (electron, electron neutrino, muon, muon neutrino, tau, tau neutrino), and bosons (photon, w, z, gluon, higgs, graviton). Quarks, leptons, and bosons are made up of vibrating strings attached to membranes. We know these as the most basic elements that create all matter and life in the universe. Continue reading
Filed under Nonfiction
Hawaii Pacific Review 