The Pond

by Penelope Pressman

I walk with my feet skimming the edge of the pond I’ve seen everyday of my life
watching it with eyes that grow older each time
running alongside it on feet that gain experience each time
lifting into the sky above it my arms that gain strength each time
filling it with tears I wipe away each time
breathing out the air from my lungs to create new ripples in its surface – each time
each time I walk by the pond, the pond watches me walk by

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Gravity

by Cecilia Kennedy

When the kya, kya, he, he, shoosh, shoosh labor-breathing ended, a tiny thing entered this world on a string. Nurses had to pull her down from the ceiling. I never even got a chance to hold her.

“It’s rare,” the doctors said, “but it happens,” and they rattled off something about the displacement of oxygen in a pair of human lungs and chromosomes and genes and splices of things, but in the end, the outcome was clear: my child would float through the world.

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The Pain

by Oliver Kleyer

After 3 long years, my back pain and I finally separated. It had been a troubled relationship, going back and forth, on and off. After I had announced the separation, my back pain refused to believe it, clinging to me and after I definitively told her it was over, she lingered there for some time. Finally, the news settled in and she had to accept it. My back pain finally moved out and now lives in Bremen.

I rejoiced for half a day. Then my leg started to hurt.

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