Writing

Rub the callus

where the pencil rests

instead of the bare base

of your ring finger. 

When you aren’t feeling

 

so much like yourself, 

what is your relationship

to enough? The sea

 

that gives you sand, the foam

that gives you the spray

 

of algae floating toward river,

salt into a far off fresh?

            Will you let the conches rest

with their oracles gestating

 

or beg they scream

bloody murder? Evenings 

the pencil marks two 

dimensionality like a dog 

 

who sits and laps

at the edge of a mirage

 

called thirst. 

At night the foam builds

without shine. If you don’t 

 

bed a scientist, will you 

never hear that 

 

the existence of the surface is 

more important than what 

the surface contains

 

or your silence? 

 

If dreams weren’t fluid,

            they would answer 

to day. Instead 

they drown it.

 

Amy A. Whitcomb

Poetry and prose by Amy A. Whitcomb have recently appeared in Witness, Poet Lore, The Baltimore Review, Terrain.org, and other journals. She holds a Master of Science degree and a Master of Fine Arts degree, both from the University of Idaho. Her writing has been honored with a Pushcart Prize nomination and residencies with the Jentel Foundation, Playa, and Great Smoky Mountains National Park. You can meet Amy at www.amyawhitcomb.com/artist.

And the sweater you’ve been missing

appears among some clothes you are sorting

 

and the recipe you’d forgotten falls from

the pages of the cookbook you’re perusing

 

and the person who convinced herself

she must hate you for your differences

 

appears in a dream as a character to protect.

And the friendship once abandoned

 

is resumed, though only in spectral form,

in a familiar world you’ve never seen,

 

where garments are only imagined

to fit, and flavors are tasted

 

simply by reading ingredient lists,

but promises to cook it again

 

are never kept because it didn’t

taste that good in the first place.

 

Nancy Whitecar

Nancy Whitecar is a professional pianist and music teacher living in the Bay Area, California, who is making publication of her writing her third act. Her poetry has been published in “Stick Figure,” “Loud Coffee Press,” and “A&U Magazine,” which nominated her poem “Punch Line” for a Pushcart Prize. Her short stories have appeared in “The MacGuffin” and “Ember: A Journal of Luminous Things.” She’s listening to jazz or Beethoven at home when she’s not hiking and camping with her husband.

Fabio Sassi

Hello I’m lost

Lost archive

Fabio Sassi

Fabio Sassi makes photos and acrylics using whatever is considered to have no worth by the mainstream. He often puts a quirky twist to his subjects or employs an unusual perspective that gives a new angle of view. Fabio lives in Bologna, Italy and his work can be viewed at www.fabiosassi.foliohd.com

Tracey Dean Widelitz

The Lights of Temple Bar Dublin Ireland

 

Tracey Dean Widelitz

Tracey Dean Widelitz is an emerging writer, poet and photographer, and is the author of ‘A Heavenly World’, a forthcoming published children’s book. Her poetry has been published in Wingless Dreamer’s ‘Dreamstones of Summer’, ‘Dawn of the Day’, ‘Whispers of Pumpkin’ and ‘My Cityline’ Anthologies, and she was the Grand Winner of Wingless Dreamer’s ‘Dreamstones of Summer’ Poetry Contest. Her photographs appear in ‘Months to Years’ Winter 2022 edition and ‘Camas’ Winter 2021 edition literary magazines and Las Lagunas Art Gallery upcoming February show ‘Captured’ (Photography) 2022-Online Edition. Visit her website at https://www.traceydeanwidelitz.com

Swing with a View, Kauai

Swing with a View, Kauai

 

Jim Ross

Jim Ross jumped into creative pursuits in 2015 after a rewarding career in public health research. With a graduate degree from Howard University, in six years he’s published nonfiction, poetry, and photography in over 175 journals and anthologies on five continents. Publications include 580 Split, Bombay Gin, Burningword, Camas, Columbia Journal, Hippocampus, Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, Lunch Ticket, MAKE, Manchester Review, Stonecoast, The Atlantic, and Typehouse. Jim’s recently-published photo essays include Barren, DASH, Kestrel, Litro, New World Writing, So It Goes, and Wordpeace, with Typehouse forthcoming. Jim has also published graphic nonfiction pieces based on old postcards, such as Barren, Ilanot Review, and Litro, with Palaver forthcoming. A nonfiction piece led to involvement in a high-profile documentary limited series broadcast internationally. Jim and his wife—parents of two health professionals and grandparents of five little ones—split their time between city and mountains.