Introduction and Poems by Stefan Lovasik
Introduction by Stefan Lovasik It has been an honor and a remarkable challenge to narrow all the fine poems down to what is collected here, especially given that there were approximately 3,000 poems submitted for this issue of Pedestal. I sincerely wish we could have published many more. My deep gratitude to John Amen for […]
Ruth McKinney – Opposites
Opposites Yesterday, in the shower he was rehearsing his talk on Srebrenica. When he first mentioned it, she was surprised. Why was he giving a lecture on Russian vodka? Today, in the shower he was wondering why opposites attract. How could he be drawn to someone who cared so little and knew even less? But […]
William Conelly – Medal Winner
Medal Winner Accept him afterwards, wedged upright on a sofa, tunneling the sunset: nights aren’t night enough. Why this is so you will not fully understand; he can’t explain himself: Look how hot, bleeding turmoil’s been transfused by cooler, kinder stuff and weeping men still emerge to grip my hand. William […]
Sherre Vernon – The Emperor
The Emperor From the Punk’s Tarot 1 Outside the window, a desert. Mars ascends, and asks what kind of man I’ll be. On the screen, Picard, reluctant, chooses diplomacy over love. And a woman, chameleon (chameleons all), her cells rejecting imprisonment, rejecting a lesser man, mates instead, her soul to me. 2 Keanu’s long coat, […]
Travis Burke – 25 Hours from Northern Iraq
25 Hours from Northern Iraq I stood in the rain and listened to the cell phone slowly dying, swearing in the soaked streets, it was my brother fading away this time to desert and sun bullet and mortar I thought I could hear the planes, engines silencing last-minute men called to lose themselves in phosphorous […]
