IMPERMANENCE ALIGHT.......................................................................................................................RISA PAPPAS

Impermanence Alight

Poem by Risa Pappas

The little church that is the morning the stillness that allows (at least) for breathing—we are to be alive and Holy and pour forth into the day of trials both as the fire punching birds into the sky and as the water to make of the world a cleansed nest once more. Almost cruelty each day in dawning a sermon of hope cresting the trees and we by breakfast cleft into apostle and disciple. Even the doves can only hold aloft for so long. By sundown we roost into one again united by the exhaustion of both wings beating.

Risa Pappas is a poet, filmmaker, writer, editor, audiobook narrator, and public speaker. She has most recently been published in bluntly magazine and Black Fox Literary Magazine and is a senior editor at Tolsun Books. Risa received her MFA in creative writing at Fairleigh Dickinson University. She currently resides near Philadelphia.

LADIES' NIGHT BY CATHLEEN COHEN