fall 2019
Table of Contents
Return to Home PageNot really a father, John Sibley Williams
Glory and the Neighbors Untidy Ending Lauren Camp
Ladybug, Ladybug Cristalle Smith
reflex 800possessedmoments Edward Wells
Dark Night Full of Stars After Trout in Siskiyou County Bruce Robinson
Inherited Water View Looking at My Hand I See Her Robert Carr
Powered By English Y Pronounced EE Meredith Quartermain
Visionary Nebraska Katie Berger
Border Song: Within the Paper Spiral of Wasps Janet Youngdahl
Now She's Going to Get It Marjorie Silverman
Cherry Orchard Isabelle Ortner
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
Wife Lessons Jody Burke-Kaiser
The ice was coming nicely Matthew Schmidt
Women of Trachis Savannah Pulfer
{steeple-chase} {grave-tending} {declining dessert} David Morgan O'Connor
Concurrent Incidents
In this secret
I call the breaking solar
news hour
spun on wheat berries, detergent
the baby coos in the womb.
Mr. Appointment says sit down it’s the primarys!
In another room
it’s no good for Elana.
The cancer eats her spine, strikes her throat
like a rake.
My phone vibrates
it’s spaghetti, I say
to my daughter
and no Elijah isn’t coming spilling the wine into my cup
I forgot to leave the door ajar
expired beet juice,
a dribble of pee
on my flowery dress.
The forest around us says
“your baby will be a boy”
“your baby is too big for your body”
yours, yours, yours.
Elana’s body is too small for her soul.
Strangers take pictures in the hospital parking lot.
There is nothing to do in the waiting room
but speculate.
My friend is disappearing and the doctor confirms
on the ultrasound by typing
BOY
MARCH 30, 2018.
By the time I blink she is dead and he comes early.