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Wednesday, July 24, 2024: Jeanie Greenfelder's "Time Travel" (and accompanying photo)

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                                                                               © 2024 Jeanie Greenfelder   Jeanie Greenfelder’s poems have been published at American Life in Poetry, Writer’s Almanac , and as a Poetry Foundation Poem of the Day; in anthologies and in journals: M iramar, Thema, Askew, Persimmon Tree , and others. She served as the San Luis Obispo County poet laureate, 2017,18. Jeanie’s books are Biting the Apple , Marriage and Other Leaps of Faith , and I Got What I Came For. Learn more at jeaniegreensfelder.com Time Travel My ten-year-old self climbs into her time machine, aims for age twenty-four, and over-shoots the mark. In the ballpark still, but landing with me, age eighty, she pouts, wants to play Monopoly, and eat Twinkies. She hates maintenance, floss, water pick, and brush, wonders why she aches and can’t sleep. Where are the parties and dances she’d imagined? Her prince turns out to be an ancient king. She rails against kale and cauliflower, longs for grille
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Wednesday, July 10, 2024: Keiko Amano's "After the Concert"

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                                                           © Kyoto News Keiko Amano was born and reared in Yokohama, Japan. She writes both in English and Japanese. Her first book, Ocha Teacher , was published in 2015. Some of her short stories and essays have appeared in magazines. In order of publication, most recent first, they have appeared in p oeticdiversity (US), WilsonFest: Nature and Mystery, Poets on Site (US) , the East Jasmine Review (US), the Bicycle Review (US) , San Dimas Writer’s Workshop (US) , Contemporary Literary Horizon (Romania), and Eye-Ai (Japan). She was an infrastructure systems programmer for Farmers Insurance Group in Los Angeles for thirteen years and worked mainly at the data centers of various corporations in Japan and the U.S. She took many creative writing classes at UCLA Extension and attended Writers workshops. Mother had nothing good to say about the Beatles before, but now she has jumped to my side and joined the cheering crowd. Her motto is t
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Friday, July 5, 2024: Duane L. Herrmann's "Partition Affects"

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  Internationally published, award-winning poet and historian, Duane L Herrmann has work translated into several languages, publications in a dozen countries, in print and online, including nine collections of poetry, a sci fi novel , a history book, and a collection of short stories. His poetry has received the Robert Hayden Poetry Fellowship, inclusion in American Poets of the 1990s , Map of Kansas Literature (website), Kansas Poets Trail and others. These accomplishments defy his traumatic childhood embellished by dyslexia, ADHD, an anxiety disorder, and PTSD. He spends his time on the prairie with trees in the breeze, writes – and loves moonlight! Partition Affects My aunt arrived in rags and my cousin too, but they were alive. Trains arrived all passengers dead didn’t make the news too many dead to care. Fortunately, my aunt had been able to sew some jewels in hiding that were not searched. Muslim neighbors gone, they moved in. Just ten, I didn’t understand tragic circumstance as
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Wednesday, June 5, 2024: Matt McGee's "Waiting for Take Off"

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Matt McGee writes in the Los Angeles area. In 2023, his work appeared in Spectrum , Gnashing Teeth , and The NonBinary Review. When not typing, he drives around in rented car and plays goalie in local hockey leagues. Yeah, sitting in the airport terminal waiting on the flight to San Francisco, where I’ll attend a poetry reading of some bigger names, and hopefully hand out my budding literary magazine. On my left is a man about fifteen years or so older than me, yapping on his cell phone to someone in His office, “I’m sure whatever expenditure you’re asking about I probably approved so just go ahead and do it, it’s fine.” Across the aisle is a woman maybe five years younger than me who’s chatting away with someone in her office. “Yeah, I met with four different people today and what I found out is that they sell absolutely nothing, produce nothing and need nothing. So, remind me again why I came?” To these people, I’m a child. I’m dotting up the California coast, hoping to bend a few e
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Monday, May 27.2024: Lynn White's "Bourgas to Varna"

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  Lynn White lives in north Wales. Her poetry is influenced by issues of social justice and events, places and people she has known or imagined. She is especially interested in exploring the boundaries of dream, fantasy and reality. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net and a Rhysling Award. Find Lynn at: https://lynnwhitepoetry.blogspot.com and https://www.facebook.com/Lynn-White-Poetry-1603675983213077/ Bourgas to Varna In the days when East was east and West was west we were travelling in Bulgaria and wanted to go from Bourgas to Varna. So we bought a bus ticket from the office in town. and helpful locals directed us to the bus station. But once there we were lost and searched in vain for the bus stop. We asked and asked, showed everyone the ticket but no one could help. Many pointed to the office nearby. But we already had a ticket for the correct date and time. We were lost beyond our understanding. And then there was a sound, a sound of ship’s hooter and w
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Friday, May 17. 2024: Elizabeth Jaeger’s "Bibimbap"

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Elizabeth Jaeger’s essays, short stories, book reviews and poetry have been published in various print and online journals, including Margate Bookie, Caustic Frolic, The Blue Nib , Capsule Stories , Watchung Review, Ovunque Siamo, Peacock Journal, Boston Accent Lit, and Italian Americana. Her memoir Stolen: Love and Loss in the Time of COVID is forthcoming from Unsolicited Press. You can find her at: https://jaegerwrites13.wordpress.com , on Instagram @jaegerwrites, and on TikTok @papajaegertheowl. I was more tired than hungry. My jaw ached from a constant stream of yawns and my eyelids felt like sacks of cement. Our first day in Seoul had passed in a blur. I remembered virtually nothing of it after we arrived at Wonderland’s headquarters, the academy in which we would teach for the next twelve months. Even though the sun had not yet set, as soon as Dave—our English speaking liaison with Wonderland — showed us to the hotel, I laid down on the lumpy double bed. The bright sun pushed
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