Tracie T. Nichols Before the hands in the night. Before the forced exposures. Before my morning school bus rides, hobbled by hidden pain.

Tracy Grinstead-Everly Vanilla is the scent of rape. I have tried many times to make it NOT that, to make it the scent of nurseries and...

Tracie T. Nichols I am flesh annealed. Strong but jagged. Malleable but shatterproof. Tempered young— exposure by relentless exposure....

Wendy Jensen They are still here. An unspoken presence first fully realized within the air and ground of the forest. Inseparable from...

slm The shedding of anything isn’t easy. Letting go of all that has been built up Over time, Under pressure, Through something As simple...

Valerie Twyman I was born an identical twin. Many years ago, I looked up the meaning of our names. Vera, who died after living for only...

Leslie Hill It is late afternoon on a Friday, and almost everyone in our family is at a Fourth of July block party down the street. I...

Jess Woolford dress to suppress step into sack sweats hide inside hoodie no shape: too ugly to rape or so they say spontaneity? a...

Caroline Cottom Texaco Man Daddy’s footsteps on the stairs shake the house he flips on the bathroom light flushes the toilet hard...

Tracie T. Nichols choked on unsought moisture forced through every mucus-lined threshold a small girl body forms in trusting fetal...

Wendy Jensen I don't necessarily like the taste of tea. It's the enforced break from my rushing inner world that rewards. Once the tea...

Beth Thunk, thunk, thunk. She's slamming her body into the wall. Bouncing off and slamming into it again and again. A voice, HER voice,...

Wendy Jensen I accelerate onto the freeway trees flashing by and my assured solitude tickles awake a memory. An unbidden flicker quiet as...

Tracie T. Nichols the unabashed truths etched across gray folds, cradled in brittling bone. Name the diminishment— the utter, unholy,...

Morgan Sullivan Monsters live in my head. Some monsters have smooth reptile skin shades of emerald jewels and then there is one that...