Poetry

Two Poems—Ellen Stone

Poetry Issue #4: Hope March 31st, 2020 March 31st, 2020 Two Poems by Ellen Stone Cream Puffs Those days she was eggy ++++seemed like the sun always shone lemon-sifted spring lazy ++++pollen drifts rusted old box grater ++++thick vanilla custard stirred yellow cornstarch box sprinkled sugar ++++rich milk dribbled yolked in buttercups all ++++the live long day. Mom always cooking something up, ++++hum, hum, humming. Drops of batter dough spun ++++with a whack of hands big against the faded pastel bowl ++++turquoise stove white-gold Corelle & here come the cream puffs ++++bronzed puffballs peeking out ...

Poetry Issue #4: Hope March 31st, 2020 March 31st, 2020 Poetry Letter from the Poetry Editor: Timeworn Challenges, Timeless Remedy meditation at the cancer care center and Embracing the Dead | Wilda Morris Cream Puffs and Leftover Spools | Ellen Stone black woman’s guide to not dying in childbirth | Mia Wright Bookends and Burning Incandescent | Seth Grindstaff one decides and temple | JI Kleinberg The Life of the Ball Turret Gunner and Word Lady | Vincent Casaregola A Morning Lesson | ...

Dear Small Bowel—Jessica Parker

Poetry Issue #3: Pain Continued December 31st, 2019 December 31st, 2019 Dear Small Bowel by Jessica Parker Dear Small Bowel My apologies for your current location in this surgical suite. More apologies for the reason why... those things I swallowed during yesterday’s momentary episode of insanity. First, that Sharpie marker. The closest item on the table next to my bed, I didn’t even sit up before pushing it down my throat with my fingers and swallowing a dozen times until I didn’t feel it stuck on ...

Letter from the Poetry Editor

Poetry Issue #3: Pain Continued December 31st, 2019 December 31st, 2019 Letter from the Poetry Editor: Commonality and Difference by Steve Granzyk he development of a body of scientific knowledge about disease and illness necessarily identifies commonality—both of etiology and of remedies—yet healthcare itself must be sensitive to individuals and their specific circumstances. So too in the arts—in poetry—writers have learned from established practices of the past, and forms such as the sonnet, the villanelle, or the ...

Frances is staring at her plate—Maya Wahrman

Poetry Issue #3: Pain Continued December 31st, 2019 December 31st, 2019 Frances is staring at her plate by Maya Wahrman Frances is staring at her plate her eyes are going in and out of focus on a few stray peas, I wouldn’t be able to tell except that her whole body is rocking forward and backward, forward and backward, she .......is a rowboat stranded in the middle of the ocean but moving, moving to a shore no one can see, .......“Frances,” Jill ...

The Sentence—Louis Faber

Poetry Issue #3: Pain Continued December 31st, 2019 December 31st, 2019 The Sentence by Louis Faber The Sentence “Probable metastatic lesions secondary to breast cancer.” Complex words set at the bottom of a page, impenetrable jargon. Two spots where pelvis and spine are joined, where motion fulcrums down legs, a torso and its twin concavities lever up, fold down, torque in slow rotation living. The words stare out from the page; defiant, aberrant cells nestling bone foretell a pillow blanketed in hair, rosy skin sheltering burning flesh beneath. I offer platitudes, empty aphorisms neither she nor I believe. For me self-serving ...

Two Poems—Fraser Sutherland

Poetry Issue #3: Pain Continued December 31st, 2019 December 31st, 2019 Two Poems by Fraser Sutherland From a Hospital Bed If I push you away, do not think that I reject your love, or your being seen to love. What I resist is your, anyone’s, power to make me another, at the moment, someone shown to be in need, who must display the allegory of suffering. Since, in my hurting, I hurt you, forgive me. This is all I have left, my body, its control or lack of ...

Radiograph—Mantz Yorke

Poetry Issue #3: Pain Continued December 31st, 2019 December 31st, 2019 Radiograph by Mantz Yorke Radiograph The terminator killing brightness with shadow, a moon on the wane.Mantz Yorke is a former science teacher and researcher living in Manchester, England. His poems have appeared in a number of print magazines, anthologies, and e-magazines in the UK, Ireland, Israel, Canada, the US, Australia, and Hong Kong. His collection Voyager will be published in February 2020.

The Places Where They Fell—Sue Fagalde Lick

Poetry Issue #3: Pain Continued December 31st, 2019 December 31st, 2019 The Places Where They Fell by Sue Fagalde Lick The Places Where They Fell We’ve mopped the blood and piss away. The bandage wrappers and needle caps are gone. A stranger wouldn’t know, but I still see my father on the kitchen floor, black hair stuck to the edges of the walls, left leg shattered into bits. I see him in the backyard, too, by the faucet near the patio. With a broken hip, ...

Now That She’s Ill—Lori Levy

Poetry Issue #3: Pain Continued December 31st, 2019 December 31st, 2019 Now That She's Ill by Lori Levy Now That She’s Ill For Jackie Barzilai and in honor of others living with Parkinson’s disease She sheds her layers now that she’s ill— almost as if, in the groaning, the aching, she gives birth to herself. Not the smiling self who has her life in control, but the trembling one who dares to let go; who lies down naked on an empty page and breathes ...