fall 2019
Table of Contents
Return to Home PageBorder Song: Within the Paper Spiral of Wasps Janet Youngdahl
The ice was coming nicely Matthew Schmidt
Powered By English Y Pronounced EE Meredith Quartermain
Inherited Water View Looking at My Hand I See Her Robert Carr
Glory and the Neighbors Untidy Ending Lauren Camp
reflex 800possessedmoments Edward Wells
Dark Night Full of Stars After Trout in Siskiyou County Bruce Robinson
{steeple-chase} {grave-tending} {declining dessert} David Morgan O'Connor
Dear Jennifer, Bridget Gage-Dixon
Concurrent Incidents I Flip a Coin and My Life Becomes Her Jaimie Gusman
Invocation I hold your ashes in my hand Angeline Schellenberg
Women of Trachis Savannah Pulfer
Cherry Orchard Isabelle Ortner
Now She's Going to Get It Marjorie Silverman
Not really a father, John Sibley Williams
Visionary Nebraska Katie Berger
Wife Lessons Jody Burke-Kaiser
Ladybug, Ladybug Cristalle Smith
Visionary
The man who left me reciting the sound
of the fire alarm before I sleep serves
on an advisory board that asks why
this town has no trees. I scattered
the bruises, splotched neck evenly
through my memory like time zones—they hurt
less but stretched forever. All zip codes
balance turbulence and tradition and I begin
each morning asking why I echo
with unincorporated lightning.
The man who left me afraid to yawn caught
me sprinkling saplings with volcanic dust
while he stared into the municipal
park pond, the mold. The man who collects
swim meet medals and lays out his vision
for a community under a canopy of leaves lost it
with me. He is a thousand betta fish
flitting in a thousand bowls at the back
of the pet food store. He held up the angry
red one and asked why
I couldn’t dream of it.