Poetry

Photo of a Family Vacation [1967]

By Michael Prior
He is a blade slipping on the skin of a trout. / He is a blade and he is slipping and he is a trout. / Skirting the shallows, the screen of...

Song of a Summer

By Carmine Starnino
Half-life / of a half-crushed wasp: writhing / and whiptailed. / * / Mr. Venom-Sac / knocked splat. / Dregs of legs. / * / Nailed, mosquito / stigmata. / * /...

My Lone Ranger

By Trevor Greyeyes
my lone ranger / would have a speech impediment /   / for example /   / He would say haltingly: / Tonto / Me want know why / Me talk like...

Dream Sonnet 3: Mother, Crater Lake

By Barbara Black
She contemplates her mirror-self, dead still / the afternoon air. No grasshoppers sing. / Lake limpid, a bowl of blue glass, a womb / too cold to swim. Volcano collapsed. / On...

reality wayfarers

By Linda King
you know the story / how the narrative shifts / anticipates departure / like sealing wax / or the broken logic of punishment /   / the last train gone past /...

On the Cusp of Spring

By Julia McCarthy
It’s been years now since you drifted / into the silence    years since you dug / a bed in the snow for us / since we lay down    your tail over your...

grace period

By Yiwei Hu
noon /           open    eyes /      skin parallel to /                      trembling spine / pillow awash            in nightmare & /...

Mirage in the Mire

By Tanja Bartel
Baptism in the river will be followed by a wet t-shirt contest. I walk a hot trail of dried peach stones. It is 33 degrees Celsius. I envy the church group standing...

Half-Macedonian

By Ken Babstock
Here’s the Eastern Orthodox Church, Community Centre / and Rec Hall. Your mom ate here / in the days before cable, / in nettles of rayon, at her cousins’ weddings. /  ...