The flies of mid-autumn are fat and slow. Their buzzing is over an octave too low. They are the survivors: there is no limit to how large they can grow, but as long as they eat, they expand. They are anachronistic, like the last Civil War veterans in the mid-twentieth century or like the few […]
Issue 91
O.V. Oveson: Ode to Dave Dahl
He was the Weatherman who came to my grade school when I was young. back when it was safe and I would look at the skies with hope. when the storms rolled in, Dave Dahl was on channel 5 all day long telling me when to take cover, and when to sound the “all clear.” […]
Lynn Levin: Song of the Maenads
Your singing, sweet Orpheus, heats us. By the banks of the Hebrus, please meet us. If you spurn us, you cad, We’ll grow rowdy and mad Then we’ll chase you and tear you to pieces.
Clyde K.L. Elsie: Ode to Jocelyn, Flight Attendant on United #4774 from LGA – CLE by Passenger 14C
Sudden feelings like this I’ve never felt. You’ve taught me so much about love And how to fasten my seatbelt. So much about life is beyond my understanding But thanks to you I’ve learned what to do. In the event of an emergency landing In the unlikely event of a water landing, I […]
Diana Keren Lee: Half a Sonnet
I am writing to you from the other side of the country. You like letters and failed sex, according to your poetry, if it is true. Do we always believe in our first books? I ask before I can even know that. I want your patience, your beard the sun over the mountains. Because I […]
Lori Lamothe: Virtual Botticelli
The model on the refrigerator door emerges out of the sea like Venus after a tummy tuck and a boob job. Nobody’s floating in from the wings to cover that body with a scarlet cloak and if there are any zephyrs on the scene they’re off camera splicing that baby-smooth butt with the selfies their […]