And if no one is kind to you, should you then be portable and pleasant, ask no questions as to why they take as a given that your smile not hide a dagger or a connivance; should it come to them as a surprise that you harbor ill-will or deceit or ruthless dreams of revenge? […]
Poetry 74
Dara Wier: Seventh Wind
During the sixth your resolve seemed less sure of itself and You divided and succumbed with mathematical abandon. From the fifth we surrounded you with our hands extended And opened and though we dared not touch you, it drew you Away from the fourth which had so little stir to it, too little To make […]
Dara Wier: A Lapidary Rendezvous in a Mind’s Smoother Regions
Fine static barely buzzes in brushed down silence, a bristling Silence with an air of expectation. We’re expecting you for a Visit. We’re anticipating your arrival. We’ve done all we can to Fathom you weightless. In countless ways have we ushered, Have we swept and we have removed all barbs and hooks, splinters And sharp […]
Betsy Wheeler: Intertitles
When his eyes snapped open, it was all gray tee-vee static in his living room: an electric snowstorm hitting someone lost at sea, a black and white confusion behind his eyelids, angel dust in the dark dark country that is the back-40 stable yard. He is the cameraman for a flying circus. He is fired […]
Maureen Thorson: The Pirate Cure
Maybe you’d never have heard of our particular plights— Spino-fibularia, rosecutter’s ill – strange maladies That guarded themselves harmlessly within our hearts Until some irritant arose or some passion bottled up, Unexercised. Too frail to lift even a page, we layered Recliners and sofas with the thin coverlets of our bodies. But, sick though we […]
Maureen Thorson: The Eyepatch
See my pirate eye? Blank canvas, Drawn shade. Paint it black, you say? Well, there’s a fine flesh wrinkle, Planks clanking with the cannon. Haul out those long toms, dearie, We’ll be getting matey behind The wheelhouse, in the rigging, My long mustache dripping salt, Sash of bullets slid over my chest, Greatcoat hovering like […]