Brooke Lehmann – To the Woman in the Salt
To the Woman in the Salt Woman of your own armored body, stone of your heavy burdens. If I could, I would give you water from my hands and watch it dissolve your salt. Your thirsty lips pressed on my palm as if the heat of your mouth was the warmth of morning—where a stag […]
Melanie Faranello – Paper Tiger
Paper Tiger The therapist says your mother is A paper tiger— she has no power anymore. But all your younger selves still flinch, panic at her roar, refusing to believe how easy it would be to fold her into origami. Instead, these selves band together guarding each other, careful not to catch an edge, knowing […]
Gary Soto – Dog Years
Dog Years Clouds have stalled in the eyes Of an old dog. The purplish tongue drips. His hind legs are dead, I guess, because they’re up, Like landing gears, with small wheels Attached to his hind end. The dog sniffs the air, Then rolls toward a leaf Curled, crisp, hopelessly common. He stares me down, […]
Pamela Wax’s Walking the Labyrinth, Reviewed by Merryn Rutledge
Pamela Wax Walking the Labyrinth Main Street Rag Publishing Reviewer: Merryn Rutledge In her elegiac Walking the Labyrinth, author Pamela Wax makes her way through a maze of grief after a brother’s suicide. Wax’s poems reflect a sense of responsibility to find meaning in the mysteries of life and death and to honor lost loved […]
Robert Fillman’s House Bird, Reviewed by Brian Fanelli
Robert Fillman Bird House Terrapin Books Reviewer: Brian Fanelli Robert Fillman has a knack for turning the everyday domestic space into a fascinating subject for his poetry. He drills into home life, mining memory and personal experience. The result is a fine debut collection, House Bird. Even if the spaces Fillman writes about feel familiar, […]
