Paige Milatz __________ Porcupine, Thirty-One Years Later I would like to tellMiss Oliverabout my good luck,my encounter with a porcupinein quill and forest:A recently tumbledCottonwood tree, leaves still glossy greenleaning away from the riverinstead of upright and there she was. How slow, how sloth-likeshe moved on the branchesof the thick tree!…
Read MoreMerlin Valerie Egar __________ A cat not there until he is— sudden appearance his dark art. Hidden in shadow, he side-way skitters from corners, lurks under the bed, pops his claws out to snag me. He perches on the bookshelf above my head, hurls himself onto the sofa as soon as I curl up. Mysterious as the Sphinx, he…
Read MoreRainbow Bridge, My Ass Deron Eckert __________ Dogs can’t even see half the rainbowand half of them fear walking bridges. Let them cross a field of rare steaks or swim a stream filled with smoked salmon. Imagine each dog leaving this world for an abundance of something they love. Better yet, imagine…
Read MoreWhen my hands touched the sun Scout Clancy Batreau __________ When I was younger,not yet in school,my father was cleaning the fishtankand our goldfish had to momentarily reside in the stained washing up bowl.I was warned not to touch himbut I found my small uncontrolled handsstroking his body beneath the surface,a…
Read MoreCannibal Chelsey Wright __________ After “Scarf Fetish” by Heather Ryan Kelley __________ There are red scarves hanging on a laundry rack in a secret market,watching one be sold and exploitedto a plump model with good taste and a man with blue-tinted teeth. His blue-tinted teeth remind me of the album…
Read Moreen route Jerry Sloan __________ After an art installation by Heather Ryan Kelley __________ you drink water to take pills (favorite mug, borrowedseven years ago from a communal kitchen, shows the cover of Dubliners by James Joyce) and walk to the gallery, past storefront signs for the suicide hotline (“call/text…
Read MoreAfter a Painting by Heather Ryan Kelley Michael Robins __________ —for my brother We might stare, crowding the high,storybook windows, our worrytold in the pictures of us kids. If Iam six & you’ll be eleven: if a threadround my little finger at breakfastor a napkin made honest with a ring.Already…
Read MoreInnocent Eye, 2000 Madeline Ricard __________ After the painting by Heather Ryan Kelley __________ Pasted onto patchy paper worth morethan I could afford when I was in art school,photocopied Barbie legs meet my gaze. The black & white legs flutter and danceon top of cursive letters — ii, f, jjj,…
Read MoreOn the body (Cento with Emma Bolden and Shaindel Beers) Dusti RW Levy __________ Listen, even the birds sometimes believe their trees are singing.There’s a sound the wind makes with the leaves, like the mind always is.Like my mind always is. I was just standing in a moment of impossible…
Read MoreBudding Jianqing Zheng __________ After Yasunari Kawabata’s “The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket” __________ Kids are catching bell crickets,their colorful lanterns are floating everywhere on the riverbank.Soon, a boy jumps up shouting, “Anyone wants a grasshopper?”Some boys run toward him, but he keeps shouting until a girlemerges, murmuring she wants…
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