MAN WALKING HOME
by Leslie Bohem 
art by Maya Lydia Bushell

Bent under the weight of responsibility for his own disease,
A man walks slowly home. He is saddened by the heat of the day.
He kicks up little storms of dust with his feet. 

 

 

 

Ground of Lessons in Love
by Jay Stewart Anderson
art by Denitza Davis

My morning hands clutch
sssssssthe coffee cup in silence.

Another plea, another day the wide
sssssss window guides my gaze

toward sentinel sycamores lining
sssssss the horizon—that conspiring

curvature hiding truth like the black
sssssss round stillness hot in my palms

riddles our tasting tongue to mites
sssssss living upon discarded grounds.

Our shared lives stumbling, blind
ssssssss lessons of a matchbox mind

rim the cup of some high heaven brew
ssssssssfor the pantheon, percolating

to leave the crude matter of the world
sssssss we walk in its wake, and our

pining over the pain of its taste
ssssss that thing we call meaning,

and our desire for the pain
sssssss that thing we call love.

 

 

Pregnancy Log #1
by Anjoli Roy 
art by the author

I’m 22 weeks pregnant and 39 years old. My students know me to be partnered but not married, someone who cares for them but doesn’t have her own kids.

Yesterday I was making my way to the front of the room by squeezing through the narrow space between their discussion tables, where they fling their backpacks, as fifteen-year-olds are apt to do. I half-grumbled doing this was getting harder, since I’m pregnant, I said under my breath.

A kid nearby gasped and said, “YoU’rE pReGnAnT?!?!” loud enough for his neighbors to hear, who then turned and repeated the question like an accusation at me. I watched the news spread around the room like a wave. Half the class sat there stunned, gaping with a mixture of shock and maybe also fear. The other half burst into spontaneous, smiling applause.

Teenagers are so funny, I thought to myself. And, yet, I recognized in their young faces how I’ve been feeling about my sudden life change too.

 

–

 

[Leslie Bohem] I started out as a songwriter, which somehow morphed into a career writing for the movies and for television. But there is very little poetry there, and so here I am, back where I started.

Jay Stewart Anderson is a writer living in central Ohio. He is currently a creative writing student at The Ohio State University, and his work can also be found or is forthcoming in The Banyan Review and Inverted Syntax.

Anjoli Roy is a new momma, a creative nonfiction writer, and a teacher of teenagers. She is working on a speculative nonfiction manuscript, of which this flash piece is part. Find Anjoli at anjoliroy.com