- Letter from the Other Side of Silence — Stephanie L. Harper
- Because The Deacon Couldn’t Sleep — Dina Friedman
- One Day At A Time– Kavita Ratna
- YOU ARE– Mahvash Mohtadullah
- Gypsy Woman– George Bakola
- For Angie– Rachel Ikins
- Rise And Fall– Lynn White
- Canary’s Plea– Agaigbe Uhembansha
- The Lost Pages– Sabreen Ahmed
- VOICES: Three Haikus by Daiypayan Nair
- Lipstick– Kalpana Singh Chitnis
- She Rides The Bus– Marianne Tefft
- There Is A Desire– Trijita Mukherjee
- My Inner Voice– Shailja Sharma
Because The Deacon Couldn’t Sleep — Dina Friedman
They disturbed the witch, grasped
her wrists and dragged her,
armpits screaming, they strung her up
on a sugar maple tapped for syrup
in cooler months. This story
before white hoods and burning
crosses. The insomniac
deacon, a supplicant. The woman,
a poor brute, dependent on alms,
who spoke, said the neighbors, with the devil’s
tongue, her cat-shaped familiar,
a spectre in the deacon’s bed. People said
her spells bewitched the cows,
and when a chicken fell
into a neighbor’s boiling pot,
she was the one who scalded.
II.
In the Florida sun, men curve
cat-backed as they scrape
damaged shards off a deacon’s roof
praying to Jesus for a better life.
These men, disturbed,
follow weather disasters, kneel
for a chance to fix what’s ruined.
They secure the shingles, singing
a devil’s rhythm, or so say the neighbors.
If a roof’s wrecked, no one cares
about their papers, but when they gather
to ask for pay, the deacon warns
he’ll call la migra, and closes his double door,
to sleep in a cool white haze.
III.
Because we can sleep. Because
our roofs are shingled tight,
because we think ourselves
too learned to believe
in demons, whether or not
we believe in God. We close doors,
hang “Do Not Disturb”
on flimsy plastic cards. Large letters.
Black against white.
D. Dina Friedman has published widely in literary journals including Rattle, The Sun, Chatauqua, Mass Poetry, Hawaii Pacific Review, Crab Orchard Review and received two Pushcart Prize nominations. She’s the author of two young adult novels: Escaping Into the Night (Simon and Schuster) and Playing Dad’s Song (Farrar, Straus, Giroux) and one chapbook of Poetry, Wolf in the Suitcase (Finishing Line Press). Her short story collection, Immigrants, is forthcoming from Creators Press this fall, and a second chapbook of poetry, Here in Sanctuary, Whirling is scheduled for publication by Querencia Press in 2024. She has an MFA from Lesley University and taught for many years at the University of Massachusetts/Amherst.
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