Carl Boon – Borges

Borges What mind could make things happen here—on the plains of Uruguay, boys with blades tracing squares in the dirt, women whose skin found mountains to fade to? Myth, objects gathered on roadsides: a coin, a note in Persian, the idea you lost on the way to Buenos Aires ten thousand years ago. Later I […]

Dan Encarnacion – Saint

Saint An infielder’s glove webbing shoe-laced weathered                stiff as This diner slag’s Tuesday smile—lost, its boldness           the seared- In signature Ron Santo. Sunnyside-up                were the Cubbies in ’69 then broke the yolk—                 yellow bleeding sopped by thin Toast, hash                            browns limp in greased sleep, sausages Shivered. Overcocked. We had cheered                      as long as my Brother could bear the pain.                   Wanted to be […]

Candace Pearson – Aubade: Again

Aubade: Again Darling, all night I have been flickering, off, on, off, on. —Sylvia Plath Good morning friend      faithful one still here with me Last night you came to visit                                                once more and through the wakened and wakening hours                       wouldn’t stop whispering                       and here you are                                                again            or you never left    so            insistent on loyalty    […]

Lynn Schmeidler – The Moment a Husband Stops Being a Husband and Starts Being a Black and White Photograph of a Husband

The Moment a Husband Stops Being a Husband and Starts Being a Black and White Photograph of a Husband You were imagining little mountains         in the soap bubbles in the bathroom sink all summer long and you forgot you were a leopard,                    meant to spot everything.                                                 More darkness every day. You wouldn’t know when, exactly, […]

Introduction by Marge Simon & Bruce Boston

Introduction by Marge Simon & Bruce Boston

We received around 2000 individual submissions for this special issue. As a result, we were given the chance to select twice as many poems as usual for publication. We offer you science fiction light and dark, a surreal visit with Lewis Carroll’s “family,” a wolf in its perfect essence, and an amazing look at wrecked […]