Forum Magazine
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Seventeen – Fernando Rosal Gonzalez
Seventeen glasses, full to the brim – coffee, orange juice, milk, some water to drink. They took so long to finish their breakfast, Not that they wanted them to last. Seventeen kisses, or sighs from Dad and Mom; Don’t be late, come home by five o’clock. Let’s plan tonight for our weekend getaway, or maybe…
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Spirals – Erika Dyquisto
Spirals enthrall her. She draws them in notebooks, coil upon coil, twisting glyphs about the page. She sports a tattoo choker. In this she finds comfort and beauty. A loving vine about her neck turns her morning glory blue. She re-enacts vestigial memories of a liquid time: An umbilical cord slowly constricts; her heart languishes…
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Rejecting Dirges – Carla Schick
(Elegy for Tede) How you danced with rainbow scarves one in your hand, the other draped across your bare shoulders You made a tutu from violet shorts curtsied for the camera your red lipstick never fades. You wrote the lyrics of your disease Desire still trembling from fingertips caress of a sunflower on your cheek…
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Of Waves and Wind – R. Shawntez Jackson
Currents move unselfishly. Lapping at the shores of our consciousness Repainting memories now faded from strained expectations but it is a gift A taste of what true love is a healing of the heartaches measured in the waves watch as the sea moves in conjunction with the wind they are kind lovers to one another like…
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The Church of Buenos Aires – Christopher Williams
Jeremiah lied every night. After prayer circle the youth group would discuss what concrete steps they’d taken to establishing their church here, in Buenos Aires. And every night Jeremiah, who would’ve spent most of the day walking aimlessly around the metropolis, lied. He said that he’d witnessed to a drunk in Bosques de Palermo, or…
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Privilege – Ali
privilege as sharp cheddar cheese bright orange almost everyone can see special category and status ingredients of all sorts so special it is mixed and matched in fine dining eat at places that came with cushion toilet seats Dolores Heights, Marina or Pacific Heights filling food fabulous delights $24.99 a plate easy peasy mac’n cheese…
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you (me, us) – Eddy Funkhouser
I just learned about you but you’ve become my shadow your assault in the image of mine influenced by my experience I was unaware of your existence but your ordeals were mine before they were yours not to be possessive— as much as I don’t want to share the trauma, I’m here to share the…
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Getting Out – Helen Head
Finding friendship in the woods of North Carolina Safety I stood at the water pump. Everyone else had their lunch in hand, sitting or squatting on old wooden logs. I looked down at my red plastic shoes labeled 37 and in a moment they were off and I was sprinting away as fast as my…
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Renaming This Life – Anita Kline
This is not a march she says. This is a walk, each step a prayer. Her words a kind reminder in the voice of the ancestors who knew the earth as Mother, the sky as Father. This re-emerging language of native friends who spot a sinuous cloud crossing the face of Grandmother Moon and call…
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For Kindness – Kati Spitz
To know having You must first have lost Walked past the grocery store carts full of food While counting the pennies in your pocket To buy eggs you hope will keep everyone full for the rest of the week To appreciate a Thanksgiving table Piled high with green bean casserole First you must Have gone…
Forum Literary Magazine 