Long sprawling days
skimming literary journals
not literature.
Weak tea,
a scintilla of alcohol
poisoning, short
naps roused by my
own snores. No checks
of my immobile. It’s

a kind of wisdom taking
over, somehow. No more
clinicians, no more groups,
no workshops, no walks,
just a sort of murmur;
there’s always something
going on in the background,
the heater, the refrigerator.

There’s no tenor
in this newborn wisdom,
only the humming vehicle.
The gestalt has become
all ground. Figure has
slipped under the porch door
like a cartoon mouse
without so much as a sigh.

A Cabrera's poetry, fiction and essays have appeared in The New Guard, Brain,Child Magazine, Colere, Acentos Review, The Berkeley Fiction Review, Best Travelers' Tales 2021 Anthology, Mer, Deronda, and other journals. Her short fiction has been nominated for a Pushcart Award and adapted for stage by the Bay Area Word for Word Theater Company. She writes, teaches, dances and ride bikes in San Francisco, but not always in that order.

Alec Solomita’s stories and poems have appeared in numerous publications, including The Adirondack Review, The Southwest Review, The Galway Review, Algebra of Owls, The Blue Nib, Bold+Italic, and The Lake. He was shortlisted by the Bridport Prize and Southword Journal and longlisted by the Over The Edge New Writer Contest 2019. He was named a finalist by the Noctua Review. His poetry chapbook, “Do Not Forsake Me,” was published in 2017. He lives in Massachusetts, USA.