December Contributors
Cynthia Atkins, Lydia Rae Bush, Mitch Christensen, Jesse Darnay, Angel T. Dionne, R.M. Engelhardt, Jones Erwin, James Henlon, John Jeffire, Ingrid Marie Jensen, Patrick Johnston, Justin Karcher, Craig Kirchner, Thomas McDade, Catfish McDaris, Frederick Pollack, Nick Power, henry 7. reneau, jr., Ron Riekki, Mykyta Ryzhykh, William Taylor, Jr., Rodrigo Toscano, James Fleet Underwood, Grady VanWright, Philip Venzke, Emma Wells, Von Wise
Poetry
December Highlights
lemon
by Tempest Miller
“I liked lemons once / in orchards on high ground / above the sea.”
two poems
by Marisela Zamora
“…he’d be standing dark in a kitchen scrounging / the fridge although daylight and a bug grazing / his scabs strobing lights lighting some cold cuts…”
confectionary quintain
by William P. Adams
“Jacobo Daye was the Chef of all Trades / His muffins were buttery tender / On the flip side of this / His eel pies were bliss / Until he put both in the blender”
letter
by John Jeffire
“PC…political correctness…personal computer…probable cause…”
the firemen of philadelphia are giddy, expressionless dancers
by Stephen Brown
“…firemen curl to occupy this precious space, the top of the tower, roof encroaching every corner of every room. Their bulky costumes bunch at their backs, the fabric forming the familiar hunchbacked folds of vulture wings.”
four poems
by Jason Ryberg
“the deep- / sea moan of whale song and the / harmonica hum / of the beehive, the fusion / reactor and the lone fire- / fly’s flickering candle-wick.”
three poems
by William Taylor Jr.
“We debase ourselves before imagined gods / nobody really believes in / because it’s easier than the void…”
four poems
by Eric Subpar
“The sinkhole seems easier. It's right there. It's the only proof of God to which we are allowed access.”
chimera
by Eva Alter
“…In thirty-six scorched hours I traversed
the Styx A wolf a deer and a falcon—
elected to serve as convoys— steered the
catamaran after I swore my oath…”
four poems
by David Cazden
“A turnip is never too old / to be consumed / and is happy to be thrown / in a cellar, enjoying the damp / of its thoughts.”
uranian blue
by Michael Borth
“A change is coming now. A change is here. / Uranian blue in the ice of the outer solar ring.”
a wall of noise at vassar, ’89
by Damon Hubbs
“We eat psychocandy and gaze at our shoes / long before you disappear to study British Romanticism”
three poems
by Jason Melvin
“truth is / those trees / are at war / each reaching up / as the / one beside / throws shade / the entire forest / fighting / for every fraction / of light”
with shaven head and heart-shaped daggers for eyes
by Sara Atwater
“Locks fall, feather light. Years shorn / from your shoulders, now contracted. ”
inspired by the 1986 film “chopping mall”
by Alexis Rhodes
“the kill-bots came for us / programmed to take out thieves /they glitched their code / while we fucked in the furniture store.”
kevin bacon as memento mori
by John Sara
“I’m on my deathbed and the doctor / whips out a skull; some cheap Halloween prop / he thrifted from Goodwill, making a garbled / whooooooo before it runs out of batteries.”
winterbeach
by L. Ward Abel
“The astronauts spoke of / a change once they’d seen / themselves from out of range…”
something needs hiding
by Thomas McDade
“There are ten ships left in the Ghost Fleet but not visible from the shore.”
two poems
by Danielle McMahon
“Within moon-white houses, / The people sat like the dead, ill-lit by television light, still, undrawn against the night, / touching expressionless faces )but never really touching them…”
final thoughts of january on an april journey
by Jake Sheff
“The pace of May should be glacial, happiness / Should swell with priestly persistence only then… / Let total depravity’s two ha’pennies / Be tzedakah till the days no longer lengthen.”