She took my hand, not for love, but to keep it steady. Her whisper sharper than fluorescent light— Don’t look nervous, don’t look back. The Kmart aisles were caves, lipsticks stacked like bullets waiting for mouths to fire them. No glass cases— just women testing shades they couldn’t afford. She slipped one tube into my […]
Rick Christiansen
Rick Christiansen is the author of Bone Fragments (2024) and Not a Hero (2025). Spartan Press. His work has received two 2025 Pushcart Prize nominations, and he was a finalist for the RHINO Poetry 2025 Founders Prize. He has also been longlisted for a 2025 Rhysling Award (outcome pending). His poems explore survival, memory, class, and the residue of violence. He lives in Kansas City with his wife Kim and his dog B.