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How to Backmask Liner Notes: Fiction by Robert Jeschonek
Retirement Fund: Fiction by RE Carroll
The Irish Connection: Fiction by Roy Dorman
The Road to Nowhere: Fiction by G Garnet
Berserk: Flash Fiction by Zvi A. Sesling
Princess on the Pillow: Flash Fiction by Armand Rosamilia
Lightning Strikes: Flash Fiction by Gregory Meece
Merciless Ono: Flash Fiction by Charlie Kondek
The Samurai's Signal: Flash Fiction by Charlie Kondek
Hobs: Poem by Daniel G. Snethen
The zodiac with detergent powder: Poem by Partha Sarkar
F/8 and Be There: Poem by Damon Hubbs
Girl, Killer: Poem by Damon Hubbs
New York City: March 13, 1978: Poem by John Doyle
The Dog Pictured on Google Maps in Gouvy, Wallonia: Poem by John Doyle
Number 1073: Poem by John Grey
Vantage Point: Poem by John Grey
Perfect Egg: Poem by Craig Kirchner
Remodeling: Poem by Craig Kirchner
Morning Trek: Poem by Michael Keshigian
Flirt: Poem by Michael Keshigian
Narration: Poem By Michael Keshigian
Untitled: poem by Yucheng Tao
Night: Poem by Yucheng Tao
The Dead: Poem by Yucheng Tao
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Strange Gardens
ALAT
Dark Tales from Gent's Pens

Michael Keshigian: Morning Trek

110_ym_morningtrek_kjhannah.jpg
Art by KJ Hannah Greenberg © 2025

MORNING TREK

 

by Michael Keshigian

 

He rarely has nights when he can sleep

deep beneath the comforter

and curl himself back

into the security of childhood

upon the twin bed next to his brother,

a life he can barely remember.

His parents have since departed

for that permanent slumber, touching hands forever

in a room with no view, now distant and deaf

to the whimper of nightmares

that occasionally still startle him awake,

instilling restlessness

in the milk-white light of dawn.

The trembling rays of sun

split the pines on these cool summer morns

then splinter the window

of his shaded bedroom

and on the days when calm abandons him,

he rises to walk.

At the docks, it soothes him

to see giant pines still asleep in their bark,

the dreamless vegetation, unscarred

by human steps, swaying in the early breeze

as the huge ball of fire ignites

the watery horizon with flames

that abruptly shatter the darkness

about the sleeping lake homes.

The loons have ceased lamenting.

Silently, he thanks the crystal spirit of summer

for the comforting yellow gift of morning.

Soon houses blink their windows open,

a motor roars across the lake

and in the distance

a chimney raises its smoky arms skyward.

The forest absorbs night as light walks

the mulch paths toward day.

He turns homeward, listens to his own footsteps,

no longer in search of himself.

 

 

Michael Keshigian is the author of 14 poetry collections and has recently been published in the Comstock Review, Young Ravens Literary Review, Studio One, Smoky Quartz, and Jerry Jazz Musician. He has been nominated seven times for the Pushcart Prize and three times for Best of The Net.

KJ Hannah Greenberg is eclectic. She’s played oboe, participated in martial arts, learned basket weaving, and studied Middle Eastern dancing. What’s more, she’s a certified herbalist, and an AP College Board-authorized teacher of calculus.

 

Her creative efforts have been nominated once for The Best of the Net in poetry, once for The Best of the Net in art, three times for the Pushcart Prize in Literature for poetry, once for the Pushcart Prize in Literature for fiction, once for the Million Writers Award for fiction, and once for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay. To boot, Hannah’s had more than forty-five books published and has served as an editor for several literary journals.

Check out her latest short fiction collection, An Orbit of Chairs:

https://www.amazon.com/Orbit-Chairs-KJ-Hannah-Greenberg/dp/B0CWMMM73T

 Within its pages are two tales originally published at Yellow Mama: "Alive Another Day" and "Light Notes."

In Association with Black Petals & Fossil Publications © 2025