An Online Literary Journal for Poetry and Flash

Tag: routine

Swing

Poetry by Rachel Beachy

Pushing her swing back and forth
with the baby on my chest
I do not know
the day the time or how
to finish a thought
all the hours go into something like this
returning to baseline
a pendulum swinging from
mess to order
hunger to fullness
chaos to calm, repeat.
And all along
they are growing —
I see it now
her hands wrapped tightly around the chains of the
big girl swing
she could not reach last week
how I watch her flying forward and yet
going nowhere at all
these days
thank god
thank god
how they always come back
to me.


Rachel Beachy is a graduate of the IU School of Journalism (2014) and worked in broadcast radio/tv before several years in marketing. Since 2020, she has worked from home and has enjoyed finding an enthusiastic community of writers and readers. She resides in Louisville with her husband and two daughters.

Someplace Else

Poetry by Valerie Valente

Snails line the slick pavement
like a stagnant post-office queue
They probe the damp air
with gelatinous horns
as if they would enact
a slo-mo battle with the mist

I veer gingerly around them
as they forage in scattered directions,
blindly heading
someplace else
My eyes scrunch tight and I grimace
as I hear the inevitable
crunch of my misstep
A wayward journey swiftly ended
by the grime-laden sole of my shoe.

I pause to contemplate
my habitual direction,
a path so repetitiously followed
that my muscle-memory
just pulls me along
I point my face skywards,
feel the mist upon my cheeks,
and reverently turn towards
the silver moon’s beacon
With a tentative step
I abandon all direction,
blindly heading
someplace else


Valerie Valente’s first love was poetry; she has been writing since the age of nine. Valerie has self-published two children’s stories. She is now launching a creative writing workshop business, Kist Creative, which she hopes will expose people to the joyful, therapeutic benefits of tapping into their imaginative energies.

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