How to Love a Country of War | Louisa Gardner

hold the fragments of your home in your hands
when it comes time, throw it to the sea
you never liked it anyway
kiss the cheeks of each and every man with a gun
tell them you love them
they have never heard those words before in their lonely lives…

Tamales | Amethyst Hope Hethcoat

Teresa Rojas sparked a match and lit a candle for her mother like she always did every evening before she went home — before she started work. Illustrated on the candle was the portrait of a young and beautiful girl — the Virgin Mary, the blessed mother of Jesus, of God…

2 Poems | Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach

Mother’s Etude

Allegro, adagio, allegretto — the body
makes its own music, allargando,

into and out of itself, growing.
On the stomach, an arpeggio of fingers

Featured Friday | We Want YOU!

We want feminist writers/artists!

2 Poems | Lynn Marie Houston

Sweetwater Sister

The old rules made for so much
less guesswork. Women knew where we stood
if a man didn’t cover a mud hole with his coat
or offer us a smoke.

BIT (Bulimic in Training) | Jourden V. Sander

***TW: This essay contains triggers for eating disorders. Please practice self care.***

I threw up my lunch today. It wasn’t as glamorous as it looks in the movies.

Denial | Trish Hopkinson

The surface of silent sorrow
where eyelids fold, half-rimmed
and wrapped sober over
Hiroshima and Dresden.
Colored by denial and closely
guarded, loss has haunted us.
Three generations unforgivable
and past knowing. An ancient
self-portrait from a different dimension
fell from the…

Maxine | Dan Nielsen

Maxine is Head Timekeeper at Westward Printing. She arranges timecards in the rack and retrieves them from the slotted box. The workers fill out the cards with numbers indicating what they did and how long it took. There is a blank space on the back for Comments. Maxine is also in charge of…

Featured Friday | Meet Lyndsay Kirkham

Today’s interview features feminist writer, mother, and teacher Lindsay Kirkham. Learn about her influences and how she brings feminism into the classroom:

Fem: How long have you been writing? What makes writing important to you?

Miss Accidental Blonde | Carol Lynn Curchoe

Secretly our minders had each promised the judges the heart of the fairest mortal. The poor soap maker, the rattlesnake chaser, the inimitable Mr. B. Willard Sykes of the bushy eyebrows and double joints, they stare at us.