The thunder rumbles in the distance.The sky gets dark, we all huddle in.Except for one.She ventures out into the storm, because she knowsYou have to get rained onTo be clean. – Ava Koerner ..read more

1. I’ve spent a lot of timeMostly alone.I’ve sat in a lot of parksWith a lot of booksAnd a lot of strangers.I’ve walked a lot of streetsIn a lot of shoesOn a lot of sidewalksI’ve spent a lot of timeLooking to the skyTipping my chindrinking from the cloudsLots of times.It never gets old. 2. Blessed ..read more

Hope is a thing That’s not got a lot To do With feathers. Hope squats in dark corners Strikes a match Holds heat within you. Hope sticks like a barb Unable to let go But why does it hold on? – Ava Koerner ..read more

On this dayI could ask for anything.I could ask for love,For peace,For light.Instead, I sit on my chairAnd give thanksFor life. – Ava Koerner ..read more

It had been forty years since I had seen a cigarette vending machine. It sat on the street with the other automats,outside a shop with narrow stairs,in a neighborhood of close-cropped pines,sliding partitions between tatami floors,claustrophobic fiberglass baths,and heated-seat high-tech toilets. A short walk further on, workers in smart dark uniforms waved offprecisely-timed trains packed ..read more

We are imperfect friends, you and I—each occasionally disrupting the other’s plans,sources of periodic irritation and frequent bewilderment.I did not imagine that our long-anticipated parting would discomfit me so.I am scared.I had thought about your leaving in abstract terms,but now we know the day.You are busy tidying, tying up loose ends,meeting people for what could ..read more

A red silk goldfish swims at the windowoverlooking our central roundaboutfilled with wandering white rental carsand gurgling island buses that sinkto rest at several transfer stops.Schools of pedestrians flashgreen bottles and shiny bagsas they glide along the sidewalks.Delivery motorbikes dart throughthe traffic and the crowds.Old men slowly pick up litter fromamong the rocks and beneath ..read more

The pitted date squeezedbetween mismatched pecan halvesdares the nut meats to bluntits desert sweetness. – Christina E. Petrides ..read more

– Aalia Waqas ..read more

I see you,downcast eyessteeled, a shieldto disguisewounds unhealed. I feel youon the edge,wedged betweendesperationand aspiration. I hear youtry to exciseand minimizeyour violationwith negation. I watch yourstature, refined,your ragtag shadowshuffling behind,incognito. I see you as aseed, your needmud-caked, scraped,raked acrossa field of weeds. I sense your borrowedcalm, see your totem runein your fisted palm,hear your mournfultune ..read more