Kindness and the Divan

by Paula Eglevsky

Kindness is a mark of faith, and whoever is not kind has no faith.
– Muhammad

Moya Tetushka’s house had a parlor that was always cold.  The curtains rustled and the shadows in the room changed from dark to darker throughout the day.  There were odds and ends in it; mismatched furniture, peacock feathers, and plastic ferns that seemed alive.  The family used the parlor for special occasions like birthdays, when they stood around cakes made of carrots, or holidays, when napkins were folded into tulips.  Fanny remembered being at her aunt’s house during Easter.  She didn’t mind the curtains moving on their own, or how the rug had tea stains.  Auntie Moya kept caramels in the parlor and Fanny ate them, kneeling on a sofa that looked like a chair mushed into a bed. Continue reading

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And Paper Leaves in a Portfolio

by Anna Idelevich

I’m a little sleepy.
Sleepy and had no intention of writing anything,
more precisely, she was going, but not in a state of drowsiness.
I was insanely sweet yesterday
and I often woke up at night. Continue reading

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Elegy for an Artist

by Elaine Fiedler

It was known as the MacKenzie touch—the portrait painter’s knack for capturing the perfect luminous moment of his subject’s life. I was lucky. I knew the great John MacKenzie. Continue reading

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Charity

by Austin Alexis

Selfishly, she threw rice to sparrows,
cascading pigeons and a few rooks,
despite people yelling at her:
“You’re feeding the park’s rats, too!”
She stood tall, a beggar woman
enjoying her afternoon pastime. Continue reading

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On to Stockton, 1930

by Renee Agatep

“I must have danced 90 foxtrots tonight.” Irena lit a cigarette just outside the door of The Liberty. “Can’t you do a rhumba or a waltz sometime?” Continue reading

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