Marilyn A. Johnson – Ghost House
Ghost House not even Chardon technically but the outskirts beyond the sign the higher speed limit if you know where to turn along this stretch of highway a dirt road cut between banks of earth past meadow grass to our rental a farmhouse where somebody died root cellar shelves bowed with jars of yellowish fruit […]
Sara Backer – Ragged Red Line
Ragged Red Line after “Ballroom in an air raid” by William Nicholson If I had more rodent in me, I could feel safe underground shielded from hawks. My birds of prey are not bomb droppers, but my broken immune system clawing and pecking inside my body’s basement. I see the ragged red line on the […]
Bruce Bond – Lute
Lute This lamb, that marble child, whatever you desire, the stonecutter will take your order. He will make you something to remember, said my mother, and then she disappeared. Swallow the small things, she would say, but everything is small tonight, every star on the hood of the curtained limousine. If I could deepen the […]
George Wallace – The Book of You
The Book of You i read the book of you inside my mother’s womb it was dark, all i could do to turn the pages, learn the pictures, wait for you; i was all thumbs and a tail like a guppy, not at all as you see me today, under streetlights, holding your face in […]
Roberta Feins – Night with a Cloud of Mosquitoes
Night with a Cloud of Mosquitoes We wore blue lanyards, called ourselves The Texans. Screws and spiders held the bunk together. Danish-Blonde had a mini-skirt like a dip and a dream boat. While I sang I’m a Believer the swing set collapsed in slow motion. Amy threw a photo into the campfire with the gesture […]
