NEWS PEOPLE by Joanne M. Clarkson Skin made of newspaper: black on white with patches of war, murder, weather and empty crossword boxes. They stand face forward with legs spread, verbs for eyes, seeing the doing, and curved dark tears. The Daily. But oh to be the Sunday Comics. Bent at the waist, they ride the … [Read more…]
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…]
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…]
CURING by Sean Patrick Hill There are things that could save us, undoubtedly. My mother’s spider plant has lived longer than I have, imagine. A woman I loved once, who taught me to season a cast iron skillet, to seal it from the weathering of water, air, said, with the right care things might last, but … [Read more…]