Welcome

ABRAR AHMAD  It is a stormy evening in a forested area. Downpour is torrential

AGDITA DIARIE A River of Candles...

ALAN  BERECKA My friend Pete Merkl’s dad sold copiers.  

ALI KO  This photo is representative of an idea I had 

ALISA HOPE WAGNER Aryan and his older brother, Derik, have traveled far from home on a quest to find the One Tree  

ALLYSON CHAVEZ LARKIN   Jesus Lopez mows his own lawn. So do I of course 

ALYANNA MENA   Can’t tell, tale this time  

ANA VARELA   Pacing back in forth in the lobby of a women's shelter 

ANDREA PEREZ  Memories from a past life You can’t regret or forget

AZRAEL MONTOYA holds us in their arms and drops us down into space to never be found again

BOB JAMES  The dulcet tones of “Morning Flower” rudely interrupted my sleep 

BRENDA RIOJAS.  You’ve found me. 

CADENCE S. OLIVAREZ  There are no obscurities when it comes to grief 

CAROL MAYS has written or co-written 2 books. Read some of her work

CATIE BARBER  The message said Your daughter has been found dead

CHARLES ETHERIDEGE Thirty-three thousand tons of steel... OR see his website

CHELSEA BROTHERTON  I relapsed today into my old ways. 

CHRISTIAN GARDUNO  Find me some buds before too long in the afternoon 

CHRISTOPHER ASHWORTH I am Broken

COFFEE CAT When I was a Kid I told myself I’d never live past 25

CYNTHIA BREEDING Elizabeth O’Malley was falling, gliding through mists, hurdling downward, the air getting darker until all was pitch. 

CYNTHIA GIERY  Another gray morning, spent walking under the harbor bridge. I have a weird fascination with the angles of this structure... 

CORY STARYK  During the winter, I head back home to see the family. 

DAVID CARPENTER  "Monica and Jerry are assholes."

DEVORAH FOX She unlocked the door to the business office, housed in an old, wood-framed cabin separate from the main resort building.  

DONNA LEA ANDERSON  On the eve of January 6, 1972, a full moon reveals tall palms swaying and whipping in the cold wind 

DYLAN LOPEZ  Against the foreign hour’s demands 

ELAINE CARTER Don't make fun of my feet

ELISSA BREWSTER  When you are a kid, things just are the way they are.  

ESTHER BONILLA READ My mother was a product of the Great Depression. 

FREDRICK GONZALES  The day we left was the saddest day of my life 

GERALD BECKMAN An aging drug lord needs an ally.

GRADY HUNTER  My experiences as a widowed and somewhat-senior male when venturing into a kitchen  

GRANT MAYS  14:30 Hours 2:30. Doesn’t matter that it’s well into day planetside in N.A. To Eric 14:30 felt as shit as 04:30 

EMMA HELENE GUERRA  all we seem to know is how to count coins in the dark.

HEATHER TWARDOWSKI It’s funny how quickly things can change

JACQUELINE GONZALEZ Sitting in the corner while my world is going dim,

JASON BOND  Brian watched Timmy reach as far as he could under his bed. 

JAVIER VILLAREAL From its banks

one questions the willows holding

JENNIFER FLORENCE  Today was a high gravity day -- very high gravity. 

JILL HAND One Thanksgiving my mother made a turkey out of Spam 

JIM MATEJ is a professional musician and a writer. Read some of his work

JIM MCCUTCHON.  A funny thing happened to me last night. Not funny in the sense of humorous  

JIMMY WILDEN  At some point, the alcohol in my bloodstream subsided long enough for me to become

slightly coherent.

JO ANN SANDERSON  Friends, relatives, and acquaintances thought Maria was a clever lady.

JODY HEYMANN  When a popular Texas State Senator running for reelection hires an assassin to solve his problem  

JOEL ORTIZ  Spying UFOs in the desert 

JOHN BALFOUR.  Martin Gerber was a small man, always dressed in a white shirt, grey pants, and a rather ugly green tie with pictures of golf clubs covering it that his wife had gotten him. 

JOHN MEZA I walked across

Five centuries Of colonial blood

JOHN MORRIS  Castaway - I'm called to the beach seemingly every day 

JOHN SWINBURN  Early that morning, at daybreak, a shallow, nearly opaque layer of water-hugging mist flowed in through the quiet marina 

Who Is JOHNNY JEBSEN and why is he emailing me? 

JON GREGORY As my cool, efficient car Cut a metal swath Through a brisk night 

JOSHUA ESPITIA  Please insert or swipe your card.Wait that breathless few seconds

JOSHUA BRIDGWATER HAMILTON  Desiccate splintered forest ground up and spat out

JOSE OLIVARES  Please close the windows, the air is burning my face 

JOSEPH WILSON one hundred years ago

my grandfather

JUAN PEREZ  fully past the fallin the winter of it all 

KAILEY HAMAUEI Off Ocean Drive in the old neighborhoods the homes have all been through the cycle: growth, stability, decline, and revitalization. 

KAREN CLINE-TARDIFF  My husband wears his red-brown skin like a badge of honor. 

KEN DIERCOUFF   A little too much salt. Surely too sweet.

KENNETH BENNIGHT  The blue chick’s bright mane was no yellower than a jonquil and her clothes no skimpier than a clumsy pickpocket’s purse. 

KRISTI SPRINKLE  woke up today in clarity's sense of sheer happiness

KRISTOPHER CISNEROS  he was my passenger

LEE HULTIN  I woke in the dark room. 

LISA MASON  On July 4, 1980, my neighbors and I... 

LIZZ FRAGA COSGROVE  I’m running late again… 

SISTER LOU ELLA HICKMAN  after a poetry reading i was asked

LUCAS DIERCOUFF  HARVEY TATE REPORTING: “This footage can give you…the heebie-jeebies!  

MANDY ASHCRAFT  Slowly, over time, the story of your life was written not in ink but in heroin 

MARIAH HINOJOSA Isn’t it funny That poetry

MATTHEW ROSAS  On Saturday mornings, my brother and I would wake up early 

MIKE MERCER  So, it was late June 1957 

MONA SCHROEDER  Cecilia Kendall watched the mid-morning El Paso sun slip through the closed blinds in her breakfast room. 

NANDITA BANERJEE

NAUSHER NASH BANAJI there is a waft of Chanel

NEESY TOMPKINS It was like any other day, the day my father died. 

NICK MARTINEZ  The concrete broke and fell into the sewer with a loud crack  

NIKKI IKONOMOPOULOS  Whispering wind screaming so loud 

OLIVIA NOBLE  Play the moth game, inspired by the short stories of V. Woolf

PATTY ALANIZ   No.. she was not your typical girl. 

PAUL GONZALES  I heard the beeps first. Machines placed around me somewhere in the dark buzzed, whirled and wheezed 

PAUL McCANN  I can easily go back and sandle my high school linoleum

RAVEN YODER  Nineteen years ago, a time when my knees barely rose above the willowy grass of our lawn

REBECAH HALL  Should you ask me what defines poetry

ROBERTA DOHSE  I once read a book about a woman who ran away from her life, 

ROBIN CARSTENSEN  Dear Search Committee for English Faculty at Midwest Prairie University:  

ROBIN CHANIN I was 17 years old 

ROGER LAWRENCE  The December cold fronts this year have forced small rodents  

RON GEORGE  I hear the voice of Jesus on the Cross:

SARAH K. LENZ  Whenever I saw her tricycle, with its giant reflectors and ugly metal basket, 

SARA KAPLAN  The Shoal Creek vitex  

SCOTT WAYLAND GRIFFIN  While I was working in the shop last night, an opossum decided to come visit. 

SHAELI FLORES

SHANNON DOUGHERTY Kept fed, the bull alligator basks on the grass

SKOOT LARSON  So I was watching television; the eleven o’clock news. 

SKYLAR PIERCE  There is a cozy town named Mentisdolum. With its greenery and thick fog, it is one

S. MATT READ  It’s flat where I am, and dusty. 

SYDNEY SPANGLER  When I was a child I would take a straw and blow air into my chocolate milk 

THERESA GARCIA-RUIZ  Like the eye of a storm, the mirador is a quiet moment  

TOM DIFRANCESCA  Much to the old man’s surprise, Charles H. Flato Elementary School on West Santa Gertrudis Avenue in Kingsville

TOM MURPHY  In this God forsaken Bible 

Rust Belt, Margaret Screws

TREV TREVINO  because it is late at night you listen to the trees and close your eyes 

TRISH KOVAL  Was on the road, and as I'm driving down swoops a dove from the overpass bridge and lands smack dab in my lane. 

WILLIAM CHRISS  I can’t sleep. Sirens whine and pulses of light flash red on the walls of this dingy hotel.  

WIL HENNEBERGER  I love Tom Cruise. So what if he’s nuts or part of some religion crazier than all the other crazy religions? 

WILLIAM MAYS In the time of covid

WILLIAM WALTON  Jake sat on the shaded porch of his Texas Hill Country home well into his second six-pack of the afternoon.  

ZER We are under the trellis of Nueva Vita, a garden that murmurs with heaves of impatiens 

DAVE LYNCH

MRINAL GOSAIN