by Robert Evory
like stepping on a dormouse –
brown leather dried and cracked like eczema;
years of stretch and pivot: dirt,
salt, and rain. Downstairs, neighbors
hear him return home, walk to the kitchen, Continue reading
The Man With the Squeaky Shoe
Filed under Poetry
Henna
by Rajiv Mohabir
Why throw your bangles
in the river at all? Melt the gold
into a charm to keep you safe from night.
Henna is darkest before dawn
as mud that clings to the palm. Continue reading
Filed under Poetry
Self-Portrait as Silent Ritual
by Madison Jones IV
I
When the feeling returns, it is time to circle the house
with senescent light caving out the kitchen window against
sharpening noon. Retrieve the blank parchment and toss
the top sheet as an offering to the air. As it flutters
toward the rug, think of synonyms for your regrets, blankness Continue reading
Filed under Poetry
My Mother was Neptune
by Chrys Tobey
I’m not sure if she was always a planet
far off in our solar system, farthest from the sun,
made of ice and rock – or if it happened the year
I was born, the year the great blizzard swept through.
Continue reading
Filed under Poetry
First Season
by Lynn Holmgren
During lifeguard training, Shelley and her nine classmates were shown videos of ho beach blanket crowds, sun glare and splashing hands; runaway umbrellas and riptides. Now Shelley was a single red dot on a cool foggy shore where they had yet to drop off her lifeguard chair. She pulled at the tight seams of her new one-piece bathing suit, which rode high on her hipbones and pulled her small breasts flat. An oblong patch on one side of the suit read “GUARD”. She positioned herself to the right of the boardwalk that led from the small parking lot, sitting upright on her hard, red buoy. Continue reading
Filed under Fiction
Hawaii Pacific Review 