January, 2022

Two pieces by Stephanie Mordi

Stay the Night

I hook my leg around her arm. She turns to me, and I smile. I gesture at an unfinished bag of chips. She smiles back.

I’m Not Really A Waitress

I tie an apron around my waist, black skirt barely grazing my upper thighs, white shirt tight against my breasts. I did come to serve.

Stephanie Mordi is a proud, not so proud Nigerian. She writes as a hobby, but hopes to make a career out of it some day. She enjoys eating, reading and sleeping the most—emphasis on the eating. She is yet to publish any works, but has a large and private collection of short stories and poetry.

Five pieces by Tyrean Martinson

My Pointe Exactly

Madam crosses the room, adjusts a dancer’s posture.

The music begins again.

“And one, and two, and STOP.”

“Try it again, like I showed you.”

Passion for Dance

I stretch my feet, roll my shoulders.

Old injuries crackle inside.

I place my hands on the barre, ignore the pain.

My soul demands release.

Baring my Soul

A man in tights. It scares them.

But not me.

As the rhythm swells,

I leap, fly, become life’s sweet soul-music.

They begin to understand.

Ballet Slippers

Sweat-soaked leather and chalk dust.

Laughter and tears.

Solos and companies.

She remembers them all, as she caresses her ballet slippers with her swollen fingers.

Final Performance

The memorial music softens, fades.

Marie slips from her seat, curls into a dancing leaf.

Ben leaps, then falls, weeping.

Rose petals thrown.

Curtains close.

Tyrean Martinson is a word hunter. She forages for words both sweet and tart in Washington State. Find her online at her blog: https://tyreanswritingspot.blogspot.com/ Find her books at most online stores. 

Unblemished Soul like a Gorgeous Rainbow! by Neha Bafna

Amalgamation of two souls.

Bloomed new soul, wrapped in the warmth of joy.

Tenderness sensed.

It was a miracle, in collaboration with FAITH, called GOD.

Neha Bafna is a Creative Arts Therapy facilitator/practitioner & counsellor, living in India. She is on a mission to let people explore, get empowered and grow, through her work. She is a budding writer, playing with words to express, touch the untapped emotions and spread joy.  

Exhale by Sydney Clark

“Don’t forget to breathe out,” he said.

I stood before them and began to shake, my mind as fuzzy as my vision. Breath in… and…

Sydney Clark is a junior at Lindenwood University in Missouri. She is double-majoring in Creative Writing and Instrumental Music Performance on the Bassoon. She has had short stories published in “Backyard Earth”, “A Story in 100 Words”, “The World of Myth”, and “Paragraph Planet”. She has also had poems published in “Gaia Lit”, “5-7-5 Haiku Journal”, and “Academy of the Heart and Mind”.

Chris, I’m So Jealous of your Girlfriend by Harsimran Kaur

So there I was, in the eighteenth street, west New York scrolling through my Instagram, asking my head a year’ol question:

“What do I comment?”

Harsimran Kaur is a seventeen-year-old who teaches her invisible students.

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