fall 2019
Table of Contents
Return to Home PageBorder Song: Within the Paper Spiral of Wasps Janet Youngdahl
Concurrent Incidents I Flip a Coin and My Life Becomes Her Jaimie Gusman
Wife Lessons Jody Burke-Kaiser
Visionary Nebraska Katie Berger
Not really a father, John Sibley Williams
Powered By English Y Pronounced EE Meredith Quartermain
Invocation I hold your ashes in my hand Angeline Schellenberg
reflex 800possessedmoments Edward Wells
Women of Trachis Savannah Pulfer
The ice was coming nicely Matthew Schmidt
Dark Night Full of Stars After Trout in Siskiyou County Bruce Robinson
Cherry Orchard Isabelle Ortner
Now She's Going to Get It Marjorie Silverman
Ladybug, Ladybug Cristalle Smith
Inherited Water View Looking at My Hand I See Her Robert Carr
Dear Jennifer, Bridget Gage-Dixon
Glory and the Neighbors Untidy Ending Lauren Camp
{steeple-chase} {grave-tending} {declining dessert} David Morgan O'Connor
Untidy Ending
Between hiccups my friend says he
wouldn’t mind
dying. He languages three
days in the hard draft and hanging
splash of each stark
internal announcement, the in-
out rebuckling. He can’t
assert anything delicate while
rushed in this discharge. This friend
who claimed every waxing of Coltrane’s sax
had perfect force has this
unfortunate last
composition. Friend exhausted
by angular velocity, the constant
rift, the involuntary
spasms. He’s in a labyrinth
of broken-up breathing, the hiccups
with boots
and visible shouting. He can’t
say love to a soul in the bass
of his voice. Can’t caress
his children: only give in to grasping the crust
of grievance, from the flat
routine prank of what’s left
to the sameāfast again. Can we pray
for a rest from the lush? We said we wanted
calm and the calm
all of a sudden swaddles the room
which means nothing
more
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