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My Father’s Map

Jan Glazewski

My Father's Map - Jan Glazewski

After repeated requests, my father, in his later years, handed me a hand-drawn map of a place in eastern Europe on the river Dnestr, which meanders to the Black Sea. The map came with a page and a … [Read more...]

On Waiting

Yasmine Shamma

Zaatari Refugee Camp, Jordan

Standing at the stove, I am stirring the bright white of milk, waiting for it to set. The kids are asleep, and though I have other things to do, tonight I have chosen the anti-rebellion of cooking low … [Read more...]

Seeing Las Meninas in Madrid, 1994

Sara Schaff

Las Meninas (detail) by Diego Vasquez

I keep a postcard of Velázquez's Las Meninas above my desk at work, and I can't look at it without thinking of the summer I spent in Spain with R, the last summer we were friends. That summer I was … [Read more...]

“Art has side effects,” I said.

Bobbi Lurie

Art has side effects, I said - Bobbi Lurie - Marcel Duchamp

“Art has side effects,” I said. quitting art finally at death I woke up at the end of a dark hall … a man was staring at me intensely … I felt a shock run through me … it was a guy from the … [Read more...]

essays in the face of uncertainties

rob mclennan

in the window / image by de from photo by milada vigerova

Canadian poet Lisa Pasold posts a photo of her neighbour’s cactus plants, suddenly in bloom with the hashtag #poetrykeepsmesane, along with a quote from something of mine. While I appreciate the … [Read more...]

Convergence

Etan Nechin

the skagit trail / credit: em

I grew up in a small village in the countryside. The village did not have street names; in fact, streets were rare: most of the village roads were dirt with patches of tar and gravel, there were no … [Read more...]

Spot the Differences

Taylor Byas

photo by Yuxiang Zhang

When my mother met my father in 1992 in Chicago, she was 17 and my father was 20. My mother was a senior in high school, and my father out of school and working, already a supervisor at the Luster … [Read more...]

Chasing the Moon

Sarah Zanabli

The moon over Aaqrabâte, Syria / photo by Samer Daboul

Our story begins in a scalding desert city, the aroma of burning nearby: burning salty corn the size of a pistol and burning garbage on the side of semi-paved country roads. Strangers minding their … [Read more...]

The Pointless Forest

Emily O'Neill

daydream on the forest pond / credit: de

It’s assuming a lot to say we were in love. We loved each other, though. We were nearly the same person if we pretended hard enough. Two girls hiding in the most wasp-riddled part of the tire park, … [Read more...]

Candy Says, by Kaiya Gordon

Kaiya Gordon

Candy Darling on her Deathbed by Peter Hujar, used as cover photo for I Am a Bird Now / fair use

I have a Google Drive folder full of things people say Candy said before she died. I have a 66-page book filled with the names of trans people who were killed last year. Almost every source filed in … [Read more...]

Deadlift, by Cindy Bradley

Cindy Bradley

Photo by Jesper Aggergaard on Unsplash

I’ve heard it said that when properly executed, the deadlift is an almost perfect weightlifting exercise. The name of the exercise refers to the lifting of the “dead” weight without momentum, lifting … [Read more...]

Food Service, by Caitlin Sellnow

Caitlin Sellnow

credit: Orlova Maria

“There she is!” Pastor Alice crowed, “The queen!” I looked up from the stack of recipes I was straightening. I was a little curious to meet Remington royalty but, really, I was more concerned with … [Read more...]

The Garden of Earthly Delights

Brooke Knisley

Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights, oil on oak panels, 205.5 cm × 384.9 cm (81 in × 152 in), Museo del Prado, Madrid

I. In early 2015, I was invited to a popup art show in San Francisco’s Dogpatch neighborhood. My good friend Megan, an actor in the event, described it as a living replication of Hieronymus Bosch’s … [Read more...]

Person to Person

Erica Soon Olsen

up the afternoon / credit: de

1. On the fiftieth anniversary of the moon landing, this summer, I was thinking about my grandmother Esther, in Brooklyn, and how in 1969 her orbit was bingo, the flea market, Eighth Avenue. It was … [Read more...]

Surfacing the Toxins

Audrey Burges

current / credit: em

The twinge beneath my left breast was slight but insistent. My heart thrummed its customary rhythm, but every tenth or twelfth beat caught like a guitar string plucked by a hook beneath my sternum. I … [Read more...]

Sait Faik Abasiyanik: The Man Who Faithfully Embraces the World

Nazli Karabiyikoglu

Sait Faik Abasiyanik

His face is hung on the top of my bed. Most of the time, when I walk towards the bed, I see the reflection of his face. I burst in anger. Before I go to sleep, I plan on how to get rid of him while … [Read more...]

When Fear Sets In

Marina Flores

skyview / credit: em

I decided not to attend my supervisor’s going away party held in the hallway right outside our office. Outside the window, however, I noticed that the clouds in the sky sagged: each thick, depressive, … [Read more...]

How to be silent in German

Kasia van Schaik

How to Be Silent in German

I asked Lukas to translate Der Spiegel for me so I could read the German murder trials without missing any details. The victims were mostly women, the murderers, men. Sometimes the victims were … [Read more...]

Flash Flood and Visitation

Brandon Noel

after the rains / credit: em

For the third time this year, the weather man said we got a “hundred year rain” overnight. Alarms blared through our phones earlier, at three in the morning, like syncopated electric trumpets on the … [Read more...]

The Baby in the Air

Max King Cap

The Baby in the Air - Max King Cap - photo by Stanley Forman (fair use)

The woman did not survive but the child did. Her fall was cushioned by the body of her godmother, who hit the pavement first. He had first seen the photographs while in college, in a class called … [Read more...]

eyes on / horizon by Emilie Kneifel

Emilie Kneifel

eyes on 8 by Emilie Kneifel

torn from a frantic nap into my perch in the corner. drowsy stare makes a masterpiece. the shadow paint. candied branch drip. white shoes on wet grass that glow like a fizz. //// /// /// / /// / … [Read more...]

Birds, Caves, Time by Nels Hanson

Nels Hanson

credit: Viktor Dukov / Unsplash

Murmuration To shake one’s head, to murmur “I don’t know,” implies a certain faith, thisevening’s swerving, changing cloud of birds above the failing farm reminds me. We didn’t invent our bones … [Read more...]

My Coleridge: On Five Poems by Sara Coleridge

Stephanie Limb

Sara Coleridge

‘Passion is blind not love: her wondrous might’ Passion is blind not Love: her wondrous might Informs with three-fold pow’r man’s inward sight: – To her deep glance the soul at large … [Read more...]

No Place Like Home

Angela Mayorga

Photo by Alina Daniker on Unsplash

“Why don’t you bring your friends over? You’re always locked up in that room,” her hands gesture while her foot is on the pedal. She insists on concentrating her gaze onto me as she “talks,” but … [Read more...]

Intimacy with Doors

Bára Hladík

photo by Daniel Tseng / unsplash

Doors are a foundation of our psyche. To understand this, we must ask ourselves: how do we move through doors, how do we conduct ourselves near doors, as we flit through our busy lives, bags in hand, … [Read more...]

Seizure

Stephanie Andersen

Seizure - essay by Stephanie Andersen

It is late in April, one of those cool and wet mornings when the sun’s light is hazy and blue. I wake early, escape out the front door of my suburban townhome with a cup of coffee, tell my husband … [Read more...]

Are Hungry Ghosts Just Ghosts with Borderline Personality Disorder?

Courtney Cook

20 east / credit: de

“You need to stop waiting for everything to click,” the psychic said, pulling her clasped fingers apart and then placing them together again, in a sort of locking motion. “There is no magic moment. Is … [Read more...]

They Saved Me from Myself by D. Nolan Jefferson

D. Nolan Jefferson

d nolan jefferson

The first gay bar I ever went to was a lesbian bar called The Flame. It was on the edge of the gay neighborhood called Hillcrest in San Diego on Park Avenue. I worked in nearby Balboa Park, taking … [Read more...]

Desert Alignment

Laura Johnson

photo by Laura Johnson

Nothing is born, nothing dies. Nothing to hold on to, nothing to release. Samsara is nirvana. There is nothing to attain. When we realize that afflictions are no other than enlightenment, We can … [Read more...]

Endless Preface to an Imaginary Work

Evelynn Black

elementary / credit: em

Light is Speech Marianne Moore, What are Years 1. walking on water in the morning light, walking on water near the boat of saints, the water clear as the conflagration of the dead upon … [Read more...]

An excerpt from Rachmil Bryks’ memoir, The Fugitives, translated from the Yiddish by Yermiyahu Ahron Taub

Rachmil Bryks and Yermiyahu Ahron Taub

An excerpt from Rachmil Bryks' memoir, The Fugitives translated from Yiddish by Yermiyahu Ahron Taub

Translated from the Yiddish by Yermiyahu Ahron Taub. Published with the permission of the author’s daughter, Bella Bryks-Klein Translator’s Note: “This is How It All Began” and “Fugitives” are the … [Read more...]

Milkman by Anna Burns: a soundtrack to street harassment

Laura Eppinger

Photo by Ant Rozetsky on Unsplash / edited by Empty Mirror

Milkman Since my car fell apart in November 2018 I’ve been commuting 12 miles to work without one, via crumbling New Jersey, USA public transportation infrastructure. The roughest parts of my commute … [Read more...]

Exposed by Patty Somlo

Patty Somlo

trail of the cedars / d.enck

The day after a man exposed himself to me on the secluded tree-lined trail, I reluctantly switched my walk to the more open, well-travelled path. I’d known, as every woman does, that walking alone … [Read more...]

God and the Magical Potato Chips by Jennifer Jordán Schaller

Jennifer Jordán Schaller

God and the Magical Potato Chips by Jennifer Jordan Schaller

When I was a six-year-old child, it was the eighties. I sometimes stayed overnight with my Grandma Virginia in the South Bronx. My Grandma Virginia only spoke English when she talked to people like … [Read more...]

Are Made Of

Tomoé Hill

Are Made Of - essay by Tomoé Hill

You remember each new encounter, trying unsuccessfully to hold back the salivating. How your mouth shaped around every new one in an attempt to make itself one with it, tongue exploring crevices and … [Read more...]

Body Bereft of Fitton Farm

Justine Fitton

Body Bereft of Fitton Farm - Justine Fitton

1. Under a gray sky, the sun came around a corner like a drunk with a knife, a slice of light on the ruins of our childhood: the houses, sheds, barns, and junkyards that were once our farm on County … [Read more...]

Lexington Avenue

Buku Sarkar

Lexington Avenue by Jeffrey Zeldman

The span of Lexington Avenue between 25th and 29th streets is flanked on either side by Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Indian restaurants; by buffets of masala chicken and palak, floating in layers of … [Read more...]

The Accidental Monster: Salomé, Mom and Me

Melissa Knox

The Accidental Monster: Salomé, Mom and Me

It is strange that the husband of my mother looks at me like that. I know not what it means. In truth, yes, I know it. —Oscar Wilde, Salomé   When Oscar Wilde wrote Salomé in 1891, English … [Read more...]

Icarus Regrets Every Tired Muscle

Wm. Anthony Connolly

Icarus / credit: de

At the base of my spine glows an orange orb, free-floating amidst the Harrington rods and titanium cage. My low spine fused, my narrative nerves pinched and running the length of this mortal cord from … [Read more...]

Scylla

Buku Sarkar

Scylla - Buku Sarkar essay

Central Park in spring was magical. Leaves began to reappear on bare trees; the sun rose earlier—soft and shy—just waking up after winter, turning everything into a warm amber. It all looked new; even … [Read more...]

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R.I.P. Michael McClure 1932-2020

Empty Mirror

Established in 2000 and edited by Denise Enck, Empty Mirror is an online literary magazine that publishes new work each Friday.

Each week EM features several poems each by one or two poets; reviews; critical essays; visual art; and personal essays.

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Recent features

  • My Father’s Map
  • On Waiting
  • Seeing Las Meninas in Madrid, 1994
  • Visual poems from 23 Bodhisattvas by Chris Stephenson
  • Historical Punctum: Reading Natasha Trethewey’s Bellocq’s Ophelia and Native Guard Through the Lens of Roland Barthes’s Camera Lucida
  • Panic In The Rear-View Mirror: Exploring The Work of Richard Siken and Ann Gale
  • “Art has side effects,” I said.

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