R.T. Castleberry – The Geography of Decline
The Geography of Decline Midday, mid-September, Sundays come down to patterns of salvation radio or Pay-Per-View. A lowland Atlantic storm hurries the scent of jasmine and river willow, carries the jumpy sound of rainfall and rolling water. My clothes and crutches are tumbled on the floor. A Shelton blanket pulls at stitches, black against raw […]
Carl Boon – Arkansas
Arkansas This is red clay dust on an Arkansas backroad. This is me telling you exactly what you want to hear: we wore corduroy jackets, their sleeves at our palms, and said black faces look better in the rain than ours. I don’t know what we were—I don’t remember how it felt to be called […]
Ace Boggess – Why I Can’t Draw Portraits
Why I Can’t Draw Portraits I suck at stick figures: they lean & sag like fuzzy old couples hiding out in their summer homes. I never saw myself sketching trees, saying Breathe, breathe, while I faked the leaves. Those pictures of rabbits in backs of comic books? The ones with captions like Are you an […]
Sara Backer – Such Luck
Such Luck My California single girl bedroom: cinderblock shelves, futon, paper globe light, wine bottle candlesticks coated with waxy stalactites. Lacking men to stay the night, I drank in bed. The more I drank, the larger my glass grew. I waded surf with cabernet in hand and yearned for love. Until I sipped and found […]
Karen Paul Holmes’ No Such Thing as Distance, Reviewed by David E. Poston
Karen Paul Holmes No Such Thing as Distance Terrapin Books Reviewer: David E. Poston Reading No Such Thing as Distance, the new collection from Karen Paul Holmes, I was reminded of hearing poet Cecily Parks talk about how poems need to be generous. No Such Thing as Distance offers readers a rich family history, including […]
