What difference between crying and calling, cursing and summoning, the frantic limbs of a lamb and the bared legs of a boy. What difference between the desire to laugh at the adults running, spades and rakes in hand, and the need to know they would run at his call. Remember most do not know the […]
Contributors 95
Maggie Queeney: Nox
A child teethes. Through the door, a loop of scream and whimper traces the length of the porch. Morning, I find the blood left by the raw gums rubbed like a hand along the rail, the floor, the frame and lock to the front door. At night, I stay inside, listen to the tap somnolent […]
Maggie Queeney: Last Case on the Murder Task Force
A telephone splices the night—lit nerve ending or lightning strike—and the child rises all lung, all mouth and howl. The man rises from inside the mother, rises from the casts of his fingers clutched into the sheets and separates the boy’s head from his chest. He runs, knife in hand, body in arms, floor to […]
Emily Pérez: Crossroads
Bonnet cocked, ears flopped, under a wig prop he said, what matters is truth fur muzzle, tooth dazzle, scent of blood and vermouth the truth about people flat iris sparkle under hungry eye gargle people you love.
Emily Pérez: Offering
Dear wolf, dear ravenous, dear raven Who will peck and click at these remains? I have saved for you this white leg, I have saved you from the watchman’s beam, the hunter’s muzzle. I have cordoned a corner, salvaged sanctuary. For you I roll, for you I puppy-prance, bared belly, dignity discarded, spread myself like […]
Emily Pérez: Directions
The toothy man shows me. The toothy man knows. Fingers my basket, my meats, my rolls, my treats and sweet deliverables, sniffs at my clothes, pulls at hem of worsted wool with cared-for nails, carefully he lays out the way: a line in the loam a stack of white stones on featherbed moss, transcribes a […]