The Voice
January 2025
Cover art: "Extraterrestrial" by henniebear@kua
Finding the Light
Congratulations to our four winners of the Pop Up Color Contest and thank you to everyone who took time out in busy December to look for sources of light in the darkest month of the year. Each winning...
Nine Lives
If I had nine lives, I would spend the first one jumping from a tall mountain, the wind in my hair, and filling my lungs, the full feeling of freedom. After that, maybe I'd find peace and wouldn’t fea...
Look for the Pink
It's when we're driving along and it's the break of morning when the sun hasn't been awake for long enough to have warmed your still asleep body. Or it's when we're driving along and the sun's about ...
Snow Does Something Magical
Snow does something magical, I think; Creating a blank skate, can I start over now? It fuels first loves, the paths criss-crossing in a storm, a blizzard that lingers in the memories. People have been...
A Year in Vermont
January: Crisp cold days Early morning ski races I almost mowed the lawn last year Still very dark in the mornings February: It’s like January. March: My birthday The long stretch between February ...
7:53
7:53 My mother has creases under her eyes I’ve forgotten I contributed to, laugh lines around her lips I didn’t realize were from jokes I’d made. Her hair is darker now, her eyes a little smaller, and...
A Palmful of Metaphors
I’d like a palmful of metaphors, Ones to use every time I put a pen to a page, To plant in my heart And become submerged in my hope, My pride and my sadness, Sprouting ideas for me to translate Into w...
Survivor
I don't want to be a survivor, I don't want to be brave I don't want to be stronger, I don't want to be saved I don't want to be tested to see if I'll do it right I don't want your God to use me to fi...
Letter to the World
Dear World, I am teenager. I am on the cusp of life, a time when my entire life is ahead of me yet I am beginning to feel as if some parts of it are behind me. Now more than ever I am fielding questio...
Surrender
The screen stares back at me: 9:30 pm, an unfinished assignment, a deadline due. My weary chest heaves a heavy breath. My aching eyes blink away the darkness. Do I go to sleep and let my body be stil...
On Forgiving the Dust in My Piano
Dear daughter of Earth, I am not naked, rose-lipped, chapped and chaste in a poetic caste and silhouetted erotically before sunset and starlight like the Thinker gazing across foreseeable perpetuity. ...
Remembrance
Cracked pavement tells the story that time refuses to forget. And while tree roots weave their way underneath the ashen pavement, Time is dripping away from me. Or perhaps I am running from it. With ...
My Name/Your Name
cover my eyes so i can see you better my night shadow, cloaked in delicious mystery, your hand, forbidden fruit, holding mine under the waning light of a summer's day. i wish to drown with you, legs t...
Bookish Girl
A book lover who reads by flashlight and dreams of living in a cottage by the sea, and running a bookstore with tinted windows and plants spilling down shelves, and mismatched mugs in the hands of hap...
And the Message Said
I got a very old text message today. I remember when it was sent many yesterdays past. It dropped down from the top of my screen in a little box, but I didn’t tap it in time, and it slipped away. The...