UNDERTOW by Kathleen Kirk Winslow Homer, Undertow (1886) Witnesses said I was dead. I did not gulp for air, did not part my lips. Who am I, and what do they know? There was the event, the newspaper report, and there is this man’s rendering. In the painting I am still reaching for one of your … [Read more…]
RENEWAL OF VOWS by Kathleen Kirk We got down on our hands and knees, once, to sand the floors. I won’t say we’ve fallen out of love, or c’est la vie. Bonne chance to these naked backs, strong arms—so pale in the delicate leftover light of afternoon. Smell the sweat? The fine shavings, varnish unleashed … [Read more…]
HARD FREEZE By James Claffey We get the 15B bus to town on Saturday morning. Mam has her shopping bag and the list she wrote out after breakfast. The Old Man is staying home by the fire, afraid to get a chill in his gammy leg. Before we leave I put a shovel of slack … [Read more…]
RETREAT FROM GETTYSBURG by Scott Ward “Retreat from Gettysburg” is excerpted from a book-length poem titled Rebel. The main character, Garland Cain, is from the Alabama Wiregrass, a place where the war was not especially popular, and is conscripted for service in the Eighth Alabama Infantry Regiment, Co. H. The woman mentioned in the piece, Duessa, is an … [Read more…]
FAMILY EXTRAVAGANZA By Meg Tuite What is it that struggled within my oversized head that made my body nothing more than transport apparatus beneath it? The legs moved when expected, as did the arms, but the face twitched as fast as a hummingbird swilling across the air toward sugar water and the eyes tracked horizons … [Read more…]