In It’s Like  Catherine Power Evans seizes the breathless moment when life pivots without warning. One instant  the narrator is lost in the pulsing lights of a night out; the next  she is rooted in the stark corridors of A&E  reeling from news of her father’s brain injury. Evans renders the sensory overload of shock--clattering footsteps  clinical light  the sting of bile--with an unflinching eye. As hours stretch into a vigil  raw fear gives way to a dawning sense of responsibility  marking the narrator's abrupt passage from youth’s illusions into the sobering weight of adulthood.

In Fallout  Katharine Crawford Robey whisks us to the remote Dry Tortugas  where Alicia--reeling from a broken engagement--steps into a world of turquoise seas  salt-warm breezes  and a dazzling “fallout" of jewel-colored migratory birds. Guided by a charismatic Aussie whose easy charm contrasts sharply with her rigid ex-fiancé  Alicia drifts between wonder and indecision. As the island hums with wings and whispered promises  she must choose whether to stay in this rare moment of beauty or flee back to the mainland before the birds--and perhaps her chance--are gone.

ART
Two Boys  Egon Schiele (Classic Work)

In The Nine-Yard Sari  Anna G. Raman folds us into the vivid world of a South Indian wedding  where tradition is woven into every sight  sound  and scent. Thavil drums thunder  nadaswaram notes spiral upward  and the air is rich with turmeric  jasmine  and rose petals. At the heart of it all  the bride’s red nine-yard sari becomes both garment and symbol--wrapping her in auspicious color  ancestral blessings  and the intimate knot that joins two lives. Raman captures not just a ceremony  but the timeless rhythm of heritage in motion.

In Miki Byrne’s How Facebook Helped a Girl To Get What She Wished For  online cruelty turns party photos into a trigger for self-destruction. A stark  empathetic portrait of how social media’s sharp edges can wound  and the dangerous wish to be seen differently.

ART SEGMENT: Woman catching firefly by a stream by Utagawa Kuniyoshi

In The Silver Birch at The Botanics  Maggie Mackay honours her parents through a memorial tree rooted in renewal. Beneath catkins and bluebells  life gathers; bark sheds like tears  and a woodpecker’'s forage turns grief into a quiet celebration of enduring love.

In The Owatonna Library  Ronald E. Shields links prairie and page--a black bear’s ripple in grass  a cold lamp’s echo  and the quiet touch between reader and Lakota woman. Past and present meet where footsteps of generations still move beneath our feet.

After eight years as Post Nasal Drip’s drummer  he’s unceremoniously replaced by a drum machine and a new frontman. Betrayed by bandmates and girlfriend  he embarks on a gritty Chicago odyssey--falafel shops  Wrigley Field’s first night game  and underground bars--to reclaim his rhythm and honor.

He returns to the empty field where her childhood home once stood  drawn by a weathered memorial stone set to be moved. Haunted by
youthful regrets--unspoken love  vanished walls  lost chances--he stands alone before the dawn of war  carrying memories of ambition and what was left unsaid.

On their fifteenth anniversary  Doug and Tracy celebrate with a hot-air balloon ride  but beneath nostalgic memories lies simmering resentment. An exploration of love faded  fantasies of escape  and the quiet desperation hiding within a seemingly ordinary marriage.

Aroha’s turbulent home erupts in violence and despair--until the night sky's cosmic symphony beckons her. Guided by the Pole Star  she witnesses galaxies coalesce  singing pentatonic harmony. Ancient constellations unveil unity and hope  igniting her courage to heal. Their chorus drowns grief guides.

Stephen Zelnick explores the life and legacy of César Vallejo  Peru’s groundbreaking modernist poet. From his haunting work in Trilce to his Paris years  this essay delves into Vallejo’s themes of suffering  identity  and poetic revolution in Latin America.

A meticulous government bookkeeper’s quiet life is upended when two armed convicts storm his usual diner. A darkly poignant tale of routine  bravery  and legacy  Miller's A Well Ordered Life explores the quiet dignity behind one man’s predictable world.

Winifred  a restless young fairy  leaves her woodland home in search of adventure and stumbles into a suburban garden where reality bites back. Joslin's whimsical tale of courage  chaos  and the hard-earned truth that becoming a Story Fairy means living the story first.

A whimsical prelude to the Queen’s croquet party--mischief  mistaken tulip bulbs  painted roses  and royal uproar. In an enchanted glade  garden boys  cooks  and Alice herself become tangled in a riot of colour and confusion. A playful twist on Wonderland tradition by Marie Lynam Fitzpatrick.

In a kingdom of living playing cards  flamingo mallets  and vanishing cats  Alice navigates a surreal croquet match where rules bend  tempers flare  and “Off with her head!" echoes at every turn. A wildly imaginative chapter from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

In this evocative poem by Alisa Velaj  sound and solitude meet at sunset. A guitar  fallen leaves  and the echo of longing explore memory  identity  and the illusion of connection across time’s restless shores.

A haunting poetic vision where Mozart returns at dusk  clutching acacia flowers  in a moment suspended between memory and myth. Alisa Velaj’s verse conjures music  grief  and the spectral link between Mozart and Salieri.

ART:
Half Bitten Apple by Cathy Giles
A vivid red apple  its skin gleaming and freshly bitten  hangs suspended among the stark  black and white branches of a tree. The selective use of colour isolates the fruit in a world drained of hue  heightening its symbolic weight  temptation  vitality  and the fleeting nature of perfection. The contrast between the apple’s vitality and the bare  textured limbs gives the image a quiet intensity.

The Album by Nick Bowman is a moving elegy in verse  unfolding the quiet mystery of a woman's past through keepsakes and photographs. As memories resurface from a bottom drawer  a haunting revelation at Belsen deepens the grief--and wonder--of those she left behind.

A heartfelt poem honoring a mother's touch in the kitchen  Ammas’ Rotis captures the warmth of memory  tradition  and childhood joy. Through flour  spice  and love  the poet weaves a sensory ode to maternal care and the quiet artistry behind each perfect roti.

ART:
Arthur Rackham  The Knave did so  very carefully  with one foot  1907
In this scene from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland  Rackham’s pen-and-ink precision and muted watercolours capture Carroll’s absurdity with sly elegance. The Knave  paintbrush in hand  tiptoes among toppled playing cards and crimson-smeared roses under the watchful eyes of the Queen’s court  a moment of quiet  comical tension suspended in the dreamlike strangeness that Rackham made uniquely his own.

In Dull Day at the Beach  Julie Hogg drifts between Jerez and Cadiz  where dragonflies dance  sparrows sip the Atlantic  and a single wave arches like an eyebrow. A languid  sensual meditation on nuance  stillness  and the quiet poetry of the Costa de la Luz.


ART:
Louis Wain's whimsical scene turns Shakespeare's words into a rooftop feline romance. Under a haze of chimney smoke  a chorus of cats lounges  tussles  and courts across the tiled skyline. At the centre  a debonair black cat balances on a chimney pot  letter in paw  poised to serenade. His snowy-white rival sits smugly nearby  while pairs of cats embrace in the background. Wain's playful composition brims with character  each cat an actor in this moonless  smoky stage of love and rivalry.

PS
"And then  the lover  sighing like a furnace  with a woeful ballad made to his mistressF eye-brow " is straight from Shakespeare’s "All the world’s a stage" speech in As You Like It (Act II  Scene VII).

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In False Detective  Patricia Walsh captures a life under constant watch--letters censored  calls screened  movements monitored. Through sharp  restless lines  the poem explores paranoia  control  and the uneasy dance between suspicion and self-preservation.

Art:
The Rose (2015) by Cathy Giles -- Painted for our Fall Issue  this luminous study pairs a pale yellow rose with a richly brushed cobalt-blue ground. Poised between stillness and bloom  it speaks of quiet resilience  beauty in simplicity  and the vivid grace of a single moment.

In Listening to Maria Callas  James Graham contrasts the harsh noise of daily life with the transcendent beauty of Casta Diva. Her voice silences the world’s clamor  sowing peace in a moment where music eclipses war  machines  and time itself.

ART
The Boat (2015)
This vibrant painting by Cathy Giles captures a lone red boat resting on a sunlit  textured shore. Bold strokes of yellow  green  and blue suggest wild grasses  sand  and distant sea  while the sky above shimmers in layered blues. The scene hums with energy  yet the beached boat feels quietly at rest.

In Breaking Branches  Ronald E. Shields captures the fragile boundary between life and death. A nephew returns to guide Aunt Vicki toward her final rest  where sunlight  shadow  and memory intertwine under a shattered sky of breaking branches

ART:
In this enchanting woodland scene  Arthur Rackham reveals a world split between human and fairy realms. Above ground  children stroll among tall trees in the soft daylight; below  beneath the gnarled roots of an ancient tree  fairies lie in wait  resting  working  and preparing for their twilight emergence. Rackham's delicate ink lines and earthy watercolours give the underground world a hidden vibrancy  reminding viewers that magic often lives just out of sight.

In Surface Tension  Colin Will dives from bellyflops to molecular bonds  exploring how water's skin holds midges aloft yet breaks beneath a diver's fall. A lyrical blend of physics and sensation  where impact  scale  and the dance of molecules meet.


ART
"They All Crowded Round It Panting and Asking  But Who Has Won?" by Arthur Rackham:

In this lively Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland scene  Arthur Rackham captures the post Caucus Race chaos. A cluster of breathless creatures  birds  a mouse  and other fantastical companions  gather around Alice  each craning to ask the same question: Who has won? Rackham's intricate linework and muted watercolours give the moment both humour and a slightly absurd dignity  perfectly evoking Carroll's whimsical nonsense.

In People in Rooms  Gemma Meek captures a moment of quiet survival--tempting fate  watching the bridge at days end  and finding small refuge in Bukowski. A raw  unvarnished glimpse into solitude  longing  and the fragile act of getting through another day.

ART

The Pool of Tears
Alice drifts among a swirling congregation of creatures  a mouse  a dodo  a pelican  a crab  and more  all caught in the strange buoyancy of the Pool of Tears. Rackham renders this surreal moment with both dreamlike grace and a faint sense of unease  his fine ink lines capturing the flutter of feathers and the slick sheen of wet fur. Alice's hair streams out behind her as if suspended in another world entirely  the mingling of species and expressions a perfect reflection of Carroll#s playful yet uncanny vision.