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by Yucheng Tao

Someday, I’ll touch the light outside.
When a broken heart is picked up
and pieced together, yet still fragmented,
like a clown’s smiling face. 

The mirror shatters,
I am not yet brave enough
to confess the truth.
The essence of my being
lies in glass fragments of various shapes
scattered on the ground,
reflecting my fractured wings. 

I lack the courage to face
my darkness and the other side of my face.
I desire to smile, to face myself—
yet instead, I wear the face of a clown. 

Yucheng Tao, originally from China, is a songwriting student in Los Angeles. His work has appeared in The Lake (UK), Red Ogre Review (UK), Cathexis Northwest Press, NonBinary Review (including an interview), Ink Nest, Apocalypse Confidential, The Arcanist, Academy of the Heart and Mind, and Down in the Dirt. His poetry is also featured in Synchronized Chaos, Poetry Potion, Moonstone Art Center, and Wingless Dreamer, with additional work in Spillwords and Literary Yard.

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."

Channie's new art book, Life's Colors, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FGCTHJ6Z, just launched (hit "read sample" button). It contains images originally published by Yellow Mama.