An Online Literary Journal for Poetry and Flash

Tag: stories

Priced to Go

Poetry by Michael Lyle

our yard-sale discards
shabby in daylight’s glare
only undo me
when I spot treasure—

twiggy high chair
where grandparents fed
during mother’s recovery,
like graying cardinals
on a final nest—

sturdy wooden rocker,
where little limbs
rehearsed dancing,
hello and goodbye

folding lawn chair
with one missing web
beckoning rest,
a soak of sun

impressioned recliner
from beside the window
still ready to hold a wave
like a child
sighting a parade,

all priced to go
like yellow goslings
straying an open field
under a hawk’s hungry eye


Michael Lyle is the author of the poetry chapbook, The Everywhere of Light, and his poems have appeared widely, including Atlanta Review, The Carolina Quarterly and Poetry East. Michael is an ordained minister and lives in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. Visit him at http://www.michaellylewriter.com.

My Old Air Conditioner

Special Selection for the 2022/2023 Winter Holiday Issue

Poetry by Briena Sohns

I drove past the house,
Two months after we sold it.

Only glancing up for a second,
I saw they still had my old air conditioner,
Perfectly positioned in the window.

Would they remember to take it out?
When the fall leaves start to christen?

My white curtains still hung,
But I wonder if she shuts the blinds at night.

Glow in the dark stars still glued above the bed,
But I wonder if they sparkle in her eyes.

She would never know the stories behind them.

But maybe it’s better that way.
Simply left behind,

Like my old air conditioner.


Briena Sohns is the author of “Winter Nights” published in The Catskill Review. She attends Palm Beach Atlantic University studying Communication and English. Her most recent accomplishment is being hired as a Resident Assistant in Baxter Hall. Though she now resides in Florida, she was raised in Upstate New York.

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