All Football ’21 Editor: Chris Lowe Letter from the Editor by Chris Lowe “Double-Sonnet in Race” by Prince Bush Four Poems by Dorsey Craft “Hash Marked” by Jordan Escobar “Parable” by J. Bruce Fuller “The Unexpected Dryness of a Lemon Poppy Scone” by Jacob Ginsberg Two Poems by Raye Hendrix…
Read MoreCemetery One Nighter Paul Corman-Roberts __________ It isn’t the name she told you, the name that isn’t her real name but the name they told your friend, heartbroken back in the pizza joint you hit up where you first squeezed her thigh under the table out of your friend’s sight, neither of you knowing she was death, happy to clasp your fingers…
Read MoreThe Music Carries Me Like The Wind Carries My Voice Vallie McGallion, High School Contest Winner __________ As if the sunlight, warm on my skin Seeped below, trickled within I feel the melody within me, visceral Metaphorical, and all the while, literal The beach’s breeze, blowing in my hair Carries…
Read MoreOn Becoming a Country Music Song Jenny Yang Cropp __________ That first night, I traced invisible letters in the shower, water carving their song into my skin. A mother-no-mother girl could have a new mother if only she changed her middle name to Lynn. L – Y – N –…
Read MoreThree Songs Mike Wilson __________ I A bird untucks her head from her wing. measures the spaciousness of sky. Clutching the branch, she feels the tree drinking earth with the beak of its roots. Without thought, she sings I am happy this morning before fighting for food begins. II King’s…
Read MoreThe Music’s Gonna Get You Margo Williams __________ Caitlin saw him from across the tavern. He was at least ten years older than she, maybe more. His dark hair grew in waves to his shoulders; his five o’clock shadow was sexy. He strummed his guitar with such purpose. Long pale…
Read MoreLittle by Little Susan Tepper __________ A drum roll woke me at 3am. When I saw that time lit in red on my alarm clock I almost had a hemorrhage. The racket was coming from the downstairs apartment. I got up and kicked the floor a few times. No change. …
Read MoreThe Circle Game Gerard Sarnat __________ I recall all my being as an isolated youngster, can’t go outside cause of bad ragweed allergies, wrapped by Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives’ mournful sweet croons+twangy twinkly banjo tunes— stuck watching 10” vinyl discs go round and round 78 times per minute…
Read MoreShadows & Jazz Tony O’Dwyer __________ The sound of a clarinet can seduce Even the most careless of hearts As the short pumping kisses of breath, The deft curving of fingers, Transform to hot melting notes. We danced, holding our hands low, The music swaying on our bodies, Twined in…
Read MoreThe Stars—They Shine Just for Us Jill Michelle __________ Mission Impossible was the movie your dad and I watched the Evening before your birth, bars of its theme song, labor’s Anthem: dun, dun, dun, dun, dun-nun, a rhythmic hum beneath Nurse Peggy’s pink-capped reminders to breathe while she Deciphers the…
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