Leaving to Arrive

Ulia Trylowsky

October 29, 2023

PART I – VOYAGE

Two families of four, flee war,

seek life away from fear.

Two families of four cross seas, 

leave secrets still untold.

Share just enough to share,

not giving after losing all.

PART II – SETTLING

Two families of four,

make homes anew and bury pain.

Share stories fragmented and gray, 

all clouded by regret.

The old want better for the young,

Trade tears for melancholy smiles.

PART III – NEXT GENERATION

The young unite and make a four,

A family so balanced well.

Old habits learned are hard to break,

And so the secrets thrive.

No need to dwell, let all alone.

Leave buried past in peace. 

PART IV – YOUNG ONES

My family is four,  

A blend of culture and of worlds.

Unlike the old yet still alike,

The best of both, I hope.

Now open to an honest way,

A life more true and unafraid.

Ulia Trylowsky is a transplanted Ukrainian-Canadian who has lived in Southeast Texas for over 25 years.  While she struggled to accustom herself to the unique qualities of the region, she now calls it home and, until the war in Ukraine, found herself to be quite a happy person.

Four Chairs Was Enough

Thomas Hemminger

October 1, 2023

When we bought our kitchen table

we only had room for four chairs around it. 

We had to stash the other two around the house,

one beside the piano bench, 

and one in another corner. 

“Do you think four chairs will be enough?”

We asked each other a few times, 

evincing our unspoken hope for more babies

in the near future. 

We had our little man, 

sitting at the table with his 

dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets, 

and his four-year-old stories of derring-do.

Over the years, we watched the fourth chair

from time to time, 

looking at the pile of school books, 

Bibles, papers, crayons, or toys in its lap.

But, as it turned out, 

four chairs was just enough.

Four chairs was just enough to hold 

the memories, the triumphs, 

the losses, and the lifetimes

of all three of us. 

That extra chair became the place

to save tomorrow’s cares 

for when we needed to face them. 

We came to accept it, to need it even, 

not for what the chair had been missing, 

but for everything it caught. 

Thomas Hemminger is an elementary music teacher living in Dallas, Texas. His personal hero is Mr. Fred Rogers, the creator of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. It was through America’s favorite “neighbor” that Thomas learned of the importance of loving others, and of giving them their own space and grace to grow.

Lunar Quartet

Betsy Joseph

August 20, 2023

Shadow clouds unspool

over a fully bright moon.

Night closes her eyes.

Fully sated moon,

you are a lunar wonder

in the blue-tinged dark.

Dawn peels back the night

to showcase a waning moon—

soft, still alluring 

Yellow orb of light

preceding morning breakfast:

creamy yolk of moon.

Betsy Joseph lives in Dallas and has poems which have appeared in a number of journals and anthologies. She is the author of two poetry books published by Lamar University Literary Press: Only So Many Autumns (2019) and most recently, Relatively Speaking (2022), a collaborative collection with her brother, poet Chip Dameron.

Four Take Away One Equals Four

Chris Ellery

August 13, 2023

The word algebra comes from the Arabic al-jabr, “reunion of broken parts, bonesetting” 

“Algebra,” Wikipedia

Four fast old friends—quatros compañeros—

at a coffee bar in San Angelo, Texas.

It might be for the last time—

one is moving out of state. 

Joking, signifying, telling stories, being present.

Suddenly all fall silent, confronted with 

the latest breaking insanity 

on someone’s smartphone news feed. 

Cruelty and anger, darkness and conflagration.

What is the duty of the old

in the face of the world’s fractures?

In the algebra of unbreakable communion,

every heart that is broken open 

is the highest degree of heaven,

invariable solution of every problem,

equal to the constant of loving kindness.

Chris Ellery, longtime citizen of San Angelo, is author of All This Light We Live In and four other poetry collections. His poems have appeared recently or are forthcoming in The Christian Century, Wholeness: A Wising Up Anthology, Book of Matches, and divot. He is a member of the Texas Association of Creative Writing Teachers and the Institute of Texas Letters. 

Sketchy Memories

Milton Jordan

August 6, 2023

Your quartet’s down to two cracking voices

so we all tried to sing your favorites,

but without any tenor to reach

your higher, more noticeable notes.

We displayed Stella’s color photos.

but set them aside and Scott pencil sketched 

from memory that first place you owned,

colors left to our imaginations.

Your ‘52 blue De Soto parked 

out front, two tall evergreens in the yard,

with that rope and whitewall tire swing 

you left hanging from one of the low limbs.

Later in Schmidt’s drafty back room

around those four scarred domino tables

a few of us who still remembered

that old house, swapped our sketchy memories.

Milton Jordan lives with Anne in Georgetown, Texas. He co-edited the first Texas Poetry Assignment anthology, Lone Star Poetry, Kallisto Gaia Press, 2022.