fall 2017
Table of Contents
Return to Home PageWhat It Is About to Do Le Mouton Noir Dessa Bayrock
The Travel Section Ghost Train Christopher Levenson
The Malice in My Footsteps
Conyer Clayton
* (It was a lake, used to bodies :islands) * (Arm over arm you expect) Simon Perchik
Ode to a Desiccated Olive
(Love is easier the headless way)
James Cagney
Persuasion
Freedom of Speech
Emma Winsor Wood
qualifications
for your consideration
Laura Yan
Rebelling Unrest Errata Dani Spinosa
Familiar
Pianissimo
Jennifer van Alstyne
Ecstasy Like Water to Soften Leather Jasmine Sky
cold bright waves for sorrow leaf kotasek
Pamplemousse Dominique Bernier-Cormier
Somebody Else's Heroes
Small Change
Jocko Benoit
Birdwatching
Tara Borin
Unsolicited Relationship Advice
Erin Kirsh
Stereotypes like like i love you Andrew Warner
Limits
New York
Brian Jerrold Koester
Birdwatching
I once watched birds.
Spent hours alone
on the rocky river bank,
in the willows,
on a cliff’s edge.
Watched
a bald eagle defend its catch
against gulls,
a common merganser
teach her ducklings to dive,
could distinguish
three different warblers
by song alone.
I never went anywhere
without my binoculars.
Now, three kids deep,
my binoculars
gather dust
and sightings
are incidental—
a boreal owl soars over
the driveway
where we kick a ball.
A sharp-tailed grouse, rare,
dances in our yard.
In the car on the way to the playgroup
we pass a float of ducks
in an unruffled pond and
I long to name them,
feel frantic that I can’t.
I’ve forgotten the warblers but
have learned
to tell the difference
between a tired cry
and a hungry one,
have learned that
neither birds
nor children
belong
to me.