Issue: Griffel #20
STORM SEASON by Benjamin Kirby
I was alive the moment love blew past like a stormWe held hands in a green parkand talkedThen, in the wind, we sat on a bench, loath to look away
I was alive at the moment of his deatha stormHe stood over me, smiled, laughed,and talkedThen swirled away in a fury of emotion never to be untangled
I was alive at the moment of her deatha stormShe walked with me, shy, unsureand talkedThen skidded away on a blacktop soaked with oil-slick storm water
I was alive at the moment of heartbreaka stormFighting the urge to cry, we laughedand talkedThen ran until our legs hurt, awayto places where you don’t look back
I was alive in the quiet moments of new lifea stormRocking you all in my arms, fragile, we sangand talkedAnd you roared ahead, on down the curving pathpostcards don’t do justice
CONGRATULATIONS CLASS OF 2023! by Scout Frost
My future is circling like a vultureon stumbling prey.… Read More “CONGRATULATIONS CLASS OF 2023! by Scout Frost”
BLUE BOWL by Miriam O’Neal
Blue Bowl
Years I sat on a relative’s shelf, behind a crisscross of mahogany veneer and glass—wedding gift— an ornament no one in the household understood—revered as gift but puzzled over.… Read More “BLUE BOWL by Miriam O’Neal”
WEATHERED by Ervin Brown
Destined to embrace warmth in the end,snowflakes fall to the nape of my neckceasing to exist.… Read More “WEATHERED by Ervin Brown”
SELF PORTRAIT AS A FIG TREE by Caitlin Johnson
We came up together,alongside the brick deckPapaw built before eitherof us was born.… Read More “SELF PORTRAIT AS A FIG TREE by Caitlin Johnson”
WINTER DEN by A. L. Ganzer
Snow blanketed the ground.… Read More “WINTER DEN by A. L. Ganzer”
PURRING RAIN by Ilana Gustafson
The rain is purring.… Read More “PURRING RAIN by Ilana Gustafson”
THE SURGEON by Peter Verbica
The synthetic leaps
from machine to machine,
then makes a dazzling debut
like DaVinci
and greets the mammals.… Read More “THE SURGEON by Peter Verbica”
ACCOMPANIMENT by Rosemary Herbert
It takes a long time to finda suitable reed.Found,… Read More “ACCOMPANIMENT by Rosemary Herbert”
MEMENTOS OF MOTHER by Stephanie Vannello
Old, coffee-stained bingo sheetsweathered rosary beadsfinger-painted art and child’s craftsa faded, gold wedding bandsnowmen lined on the bureau.… Read More “MEMENTOS OF MOTHER by Stephanie Vannello”
THE NAIL TECHNICIAN by Carol Pierce
“Pick your color,” a nail technician said to the forty-something-year-old customer who had just walked into the Happy Nail Salon in New York City.… Read More “THE NAIL TECHNICIAN by Carol Pierce”
MOTHER OF by Matt Pasca
lotion & hose water
teacakes & silence
of mulch & soup simmer
mother of talcum &
tabby cat, secrets & guilt
chocolate cream pie
& rugelach Mother of every
wound made holy, Seven
Valleys & 95 beads against
human malice Mother of
flox & tigerstone, of bangles
& ladybugs cast over leaves
of teetering between ecstasy & debris
Nine is the number of completion
she will say, then amble
off to find you a book
a poster, an October tomato
while proclaiming the dawn
of a new age My mother laying
a stone for your crossing
a spectacled Shadchan pairing
stamens with pollen-wild bees
My Ashkenazi mother, my Baha’i mother
of eggplant & turpentine
gauze & insulin, knife-necked
& working overtime in the factory
of an understaffed God Mother of
grief & needles, paint & leotards
My mother & I pretending, across
silver racks of shopping mall
Toughskins, to live beyond
our foxholes My mother of fight
of here, of whatever it took
to almost set me free
WHERE IT HURTS – LEARNING TO STAY WHEN FIXING STOPS by Ian Hu
When a practitioner asks, “Where does it hurt?”… Read More “WHERE IT HURTS – LEARNING TO STAY WHEN FIXING STOPS by Ian Hu”
SLICING ONIONS by Erin Sim
He came into the darkening kitchen after supper,Drawn by a slow, steady snick.… Read More “SLICING ONIONS by Erin Sim”