John Bradley – Found in a Hollow Book Covered with Cilia
Found in a Hollow Book Covered with Cilia A moist, anonymous brawny brain on a bed, a soft, red, brainless bed in a room with no features, no feathers. The brain, without a mouth or visible speakers, addresses you in a pleasing, unaccented speech: I appear to be defenseless, and yet I am not quite what […]
Sara Backer – I Think They Are Crows
I Think They Are Crows About a hundred flying in the green-tinted zone between slate sky and vanishing half-sun. Parked cars grow black fuzz. The world mutes. Their flapping wings are grand pianos falling. My heart twists as I brace for the crash of soundboards splintering with Beethoven, Mozart, Gershwin, Tatum, Monk—destroyed in a final […]
Introduction by John Amen
Introduction by John Amen One of my first & most enduring literary impressions re the catastrophic impact of war, on the individual psyche & society at large, is the example of Septimus in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway. While S occupies relatively little text compared to narratives related to Clarissa Dalloway & her looming party, he […]
Introduction and Poems by William Blackley
Introduction by William Blackley Thanks to John Amen for the opportunity to read many of the 3000 or so poems submitted for this special edition of war poetry. Thanks as well to John and Stefan Lovasik for what was an exciting and fruitful editorial process. The poems were extremely powerful and evocative. Choosing to add […]
Kristin Fitzsimmons – The subcommittee
The subcommittee will hear testimony of bubonic guinea pigs international bodies haphazard exterminat – ion The cloud would descend upon a village or upon people The cloud seemed to be made up of small particles blood-tinged rain I would compare it to offering somebody a cigarette such as the […]
