You’ll have to start in the spring. Don’t ask me why, ask the green onions why they shoot up with the sun streaming through my bedroom window. Ask the chickens my mother raises why they rest in their coop all winter, meat growing tender with each passing month. Ask theContinue Reading

At last, more space to spread out and organize,clear shelves and drawers to show what’s inside.Although I’ve resisted this extravagance, I’vegiven in so that I have space to freeze packagedhomemade soups, banana bread, and challah. I’m not questioning this urge to have morecooked food at hand, even if the newContinue Reading

Gliding open that storied steel doorwith foraging eyes I meet the usual suspectssitting listless in cracked tupperware sleeping in creased beeswaxwraps stacked like rubble and I sigh deeplythen turn away and regroup–mustering the courageto look once more to tread the dreaded boundarybetween routine and imagination to fight or to fleesuspendedContinue Reading

Roger Camp is the author of three photography books including the award winning Butterflies in Flight, Thames & Hudson, 2002. His documentary photography has been awarded the prestigious Leica Medal of Excellence. His work has appeared in numerous journals including The New England Review, North American Review and the NewContinue Reading

So much more than chicken and vegetables,your kitchen, your chopping,watching, stirring.What about your life experience?It all goes in the pot you bring meto heal my illness and cheer my spirits. You bring me love-made soup with alllife’s ingredients, covering all bases.And body and soul respond!It’s all in the intention.The recipeContinue Reading

I pick up the purple turnip and slice off the scraggly-rooted bottom so it is stable when I cut it in half. I haven’t bought a rutabaga since the first heatwave in June. But the autumn chill compels me to buy this hybrid cabbage-turnip that I use only for soup.Continue Reading

I sat at the kitchen counterof my dad’s gasstationwhile he cookedlima bean and ham soup.I hated it. What makes a poor childso arrogant she could hateher own dad’s soupthen sit and eat as ifit were chocolatebecause he made it for her. Lynette G. Esposito, MA Rutgers, has been published inContinue Reading

Unborn hole empties churchrailroad ties in a forestcrawdads tadpoles nymphs sold outwho dreamed up Jupiter’s moonscapes Kelp and kale prom dressesthe hunter who bags his palno mention of French parfumstenches of ghetto gutters F-only alphabet soup de jourminesweeper memories of fiscal statisticsbut last place in Ulsyssesfound living moodquick-change artist bornContinue Reading

Rachel Turney is an educator and teacher trainer. Her photography appears (or is in press) in By the Beach, San Antonio Review, Writers Resist, The Salt, Noom, San Antonio Review, Umbrella Factory Magazine, and Ink in Thirds Magazine.Blog: turneytalks.wordpress.com Instagram: @turneytalksContinue Reading

Boiled in the small potuntil they disintegrated. Nowa bubbling whirlpool of purple, tiny strings.Pink roses rise to the surface. A dish for a baby girl shower?I dip—sweet, tart.A ladle in Japanspooning it over brown garlicky meat? Such viscous roses! I dip out the pitswith a slotted spoon.The roses break up,Continue Reading