Validation by Lee Nash

Narrated by Lee Nash

Validation by Lee Nash — Illustration by Sue Babcock

For Jenny¹

Every insignificant thing
is now vital:

I feel a muon
pass through me

hear the pause
before a songbird loosens its throat –

each window
opens onto your face

& your I-beam blinks
forever

…

your paper cut
is a mortal wound

your spinning arms
are a distant pulsar –

your Bunsen burner
goes supernova –

your death eclipses
the death of a star

…

do we waive the blame
or blame the wave?

two plumed white horses
& a glass-sided carriage –

a tiny blip
has become the world

a weak signal
the tocsin

____________________________________________________________________________
¹In memory of Jenny Fry, 15, an English schoolgirl who was found hanged in 2015. She claimed to suffer from an allergy to WiFi. A note in her diary, and another saved on her laptop, read: “I have no hope for humanity; we are destroying this beautiful earth as we speak. I am insignificant, an insignificant number on someone’s screen and so is my life, a tiny blip in the whole existence of the universe. And I find it hard to be hopeful when I can hardly enjoy anything anymore.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/school-girl-found-hanged-after-suffering-from-allergy-to-wifi-a6755401.html

BIO: Lee Nash writes poetry and flash fiction. Her work has appeared in diverse journals and anthologies, including Acorn, Ambit, Angle, Magma, Mezzo Cammin, Slice, Southword, and “The Best Small Fictions 2019.” Her first poetry chapbook, “Ash Keys,” was published by Flutter Press. She was a 2018 Bath Flash Fiction Award prizewinner, a joint winner of the 2019 Princemere Poetry Prize, and is First Prize winner in Fish Publishing’s 2020 The Lockdown Prize (haiku and senryu category).
His website is https://leenashwriting.com/

Issue 52 is the ultimate issue of Liquid Imagination. John Arthur Miller (we called him Jam back then) had a dream, and made it a reality. He dreamed of Sophia, his muse, and how she would help him create a fusion of art and stories and poems and music. Sophia was on the cover of Issue 1, published online in the fall of 2008, and in memory of those days, she is on the cover of this last issue. For fourteen years she has kept Liquid Imagination in her heart, but now it is time for her to rest.

It’s been an unbelievable journey for me, and I have made so many friends. Of course, number one is Jam. And Karl Rademacher who helped me build my first website and made Silver Pen come alive. Kevin Wallis was Liquid Imagination’s first Senior Fiction Editor and what a great job he did! His selected stories embodied the vision of Liquid Imagination. John C. Mannone, our Senior Poetry Editor, has been a powerhouse, selecting poetry that is both beautiful to read, as well as thought provoking.

Brandon Rucker composed music for the site and was a poetry editor, and Bob Eccles was the voice of Liquid Imagination for many issues. Past poetry editors also included Sherri Ellerman and Chrissy Davis.

We had a series of highly talented fiction guest editors between 2014 to 2019, including AJ Brown, Samuel Barnhart, Perry McDaid, Maureen Bowden, Edwin Riddell, Gary Fields, and Shah Khan. Edwin Riddell moved on to be Senior Editor from 2019 until this very last issue.

And I cannot forget the hundreds of authors and poets and photographers and artists whose work we were honored to publish. I hope you will browse through the old issues and enjoy experiencing once again the wonderful variety of stories and poems published over the years.

For fourteen years we’ve read thousands of submissions, struggling to select the best ones to publish from all the great ones submitted. I sincerely thank all who made Liquid Imagination such a success, and a great joy for me. I’m very proud of the magazine and of all of the people who contributed in so many ways. I wish every one of you the best that life has to offer.

Signing off with a full heart
Sue Babcock
Publisher, Liquid Imagination