Creative Writing Commons^™

Swimming Lessons, Rebecca Mear

Bryant Literary Review

It was time to learn to swim.

I Am Not A Home, Kiley Mcaleer

Bryant Literary Review

I am from many places, but none of them have ever quite been home. A mint green house where neighbors are always yelling and my dad comes to visit for a few hours every other weekend.

My Responsibility To Live, Michael Grassetti

Bryant Literary Review

I wonder what it's like

to be a man unfazed by fire?

Flashes, Lila Bovenzi

Bryant Literary Review

Maybe it's grotesque

That I think of them like flashers.

Countless Stars, Mckenna Themm

Bryant Literary Review

I still taste the golden wisps

of stardust, dancing across the midnight blue

Youth, El J. Reyes

Bryant Literary Review

A miracle crosses paths

with me, and I find myself

staring right at my youth.

The New Historian, Nilsa Laine

Bryant Literary Review

One month, we were given just one month.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Rosa Parks.

Harriet Tubman.

Not A Goodbye, Sanjana Aiyar

Bryant Literary Review

Blood flowing in your veins.

Heart beating slow.

Rx#: Sea, Mikaela Gresty

Bryant Literary Review

The ocean calls, smells,

like rosé aged with salt

Unlike Mike, Caleb Lewis

Bryant Literary Review

We lost time while heat simmered on the blacktop.

Our hands stunk of warm rubber

Headed Inbound, Claudia Rosado

Bryant Literary Review

i've fallen in love

with you on the train

Driving To Look Out Point To See The Sunset, Riley Mayes

Bryant Literary Review

My car or yours?

We already know the answer.

On The Rocks, Jen Mazlymian

Bryant Literary Review

He sat on the rocks

by the shoe

Staring at the sea

Mono No Aware, W.W. Harris

Bryant Literary Review

a part of me is still

drowning beside

Plum Rains (梅雨), Claire Kuo

Bryant Literary Review

Tissue paper petals

wilt under the weight

I Drop Your Photograph In The Sea, Claire Kuo

Bryant Literary Review

But I am the sailor submerged

in your endless blue --

Submersion, Meg Peters

Bryant Literary Review

Before anything else, there is water.

God Spoke To Me Through The Car Stereo, Alexa O'Kane

Bryant Literary Review

I was twelve.

The woman with the crooked teeth

Told me I was a pearl,

I Have Felt For A While That..., Nichole Page

Bryant Literary Review

Time is passing too quickly again

and I have not had enough time to hold you

Minutiae 973.1, Lila Bovenzi

Bryant Literary Review

The law of conservation of mass states that matter can neither be created nor destroyed. If something is taken from the earth, it has to be replaced, or else the universe will fall into disharmony.

Why I Cry For Little Girls, Julia Raboy

Bryant Literary Review

I like working with little kids, and since I have been old enough to be employable, my main source of income has been from childcare: camp counselor, babysitter, nursery school “teacher,” etc.

La Escucho, Leah Ryan

Bryant Literary Review

When I started my career as a passionate photojournalist, I never expected it to be my demise. I was a naïve 20-something-year-old, ready to leave the United States and travel the world, capturing its majesty with the click of a lens. That was when there was beauty to capture…

Going For Wood, Molly Vaux

Bryant Literary Review

I.

I would never have chosen a window seat, but there I was, staring at great banks of clouds while the plane, rocked by invisible currents, sailed upward.

Mud And Truth, Hannah Kass

Bryant Literary Review

Tsofi knew the story since her mother began telling it to her and her brother almost every night. Other villagers would notice how her people did not eat the same meat or observe the same day of rest. In her mind those differences were as arbitrary as preferring to eat lamb or chicken. Yet such arbitrary reasons had sparked the most violent of reactions.

An Open Letter To The White Feminists Holding A Literary Panel On Toni Morrison, Matthew E. Henry

Bryant Literary Review

look to your left, your right—where

are her sisters? why are they missing?

The Clearest Night Sky, Carla Mcgill

Bryant Literary Review

The ending was glass breaking

stones falling from cliffs

The ending was a cat’s purr

the vanishing foam of waves

on all the shores he loved

A Sweet Kid, William Torphy

Bryant Literary Review

I wait anxiously in the United terminal sipping a cup of coffee and feeling ungrounded. My nephew’s flight from Baltimore is late because of a severe weather system over the Midwest. My sister Kat tells me that Justin has become very selfish, even for a teenager, and that he lies and constantly tries to manipulate.

The Flood, Elizabeth Underwood

Bryant Literary Review

I wake

and I am alive

but the wine in my glass

from the night before

is dead.

Let Go, Jane Flint

Bryant Literary Review

Ten minutes

to pack up all my things

like a pocket

turning inside out

Jaffa Coffee, Tehila Wenger

Bryant Literary Review

The waitress placed the cappuccino down carefully on my left, next to the open computer. I glanced into the mug and noted that there was no design in the foam. My anticipation for the caffeinating process dropped immediately by several degrees, along with my belief in the basic goodness of mankind.