The land was nothing. Just fields of blank ice and trees dying, crows hooting and tumbling over the granite of our disbelief. For those who didn’t leave quarter, cold whippings. For those who did, whipping cold and icy boots, flamed skin, hollows of hunger that plunged whale-deep. Appetite’s animal snarl, ribs prowing hard through seas […]
Poetry 85
Oliver de la Paz: Dear Empire [these are your jellyfish]
Dear Empire, These are your jellyfish. They are the artist’s obsession. The way their forms are taken by tides. Pulled towards the shore or towards some unknowing place. Our beaches are cursed by thousands of these little ghosts. Yet she fills her canvases with their clear and brilliant orbs. Occasional tendrils seem to slide […]
Oliver de la Paz: Dear Empire [ these are your horses]
Dear Empire, These are your horses. They hurt to watch, scarring the prairie as they do. The way they draw north or heed your call and cross the river, even when it is far too high. See their heads jut just above the water? How quick the small ones drown. How tame they are […]
Mary Beth O’Connor: These East Coast Tourists
These East Coast Tourists with their Broadway, their Madison Avenue, with their sky scrapers, scandals, crime rate, with their stone houses in Connecticut— I see them strolling down Cabrillo Boulevard in March, here on a business trip or convention, or vacation. Sleeves rolled back, cheeks flush with fresh squeezed, they walk along the bike path […]
Lauren Rooker: Translation
Cain When I asked Where the hell am I? I meant God, guide me. When I asked How much is the fare? I meant My feet are bleeding, My belly’s empty, it’s cold. When I said It’s cold I meant I’m scared shitless. When I screamed Goddamnit I meant Grant me rest. When I cried […]
Kelly McQuain: Ghost Walking, Schuykill River, Crack of Dawn
Autumn nights I stay awake from terrible dreams each slightly different, at their center a core unchanged. I wander like a whistle loosened from a train. Man with dog and nothing else to do. When the light hits the city I’ll become me again. Until then we drive, then walk. Leaves rake the ground; hills […]