Issue 5
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R. D. Martin, Limn the Place
Rebecca D. Martin Limn the Place I’d like to think we all go to the coffee shop alone sometimes. I’ve done movies by myself, including every Wednesday of Spring 2002 after that baffling three-hour Victorian Poetry graduate seminar. Memento and Count of Monte Cristo from the center of the back row, returning to myself. Some…
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J. Butlett, Boyfriend
Jacob Butlett Boyfriend a palimpsest based on Karin Gottshall’s “More Lies”Somedays I say I’m going to hang out with my boyfriend—even though I have no boyfriend—simply because the truthis too hard to bear. I’ve always felt lonely, ever sinceI was a kid, closeted, in remedial reading classes, unable to grasp the simplest books. Today, I…
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C. Greenfield, Black Doves & Fairy Wrens
Carole Greenfield Black Doves & Fairy Wrens My fragile student leaves her glasses at home so as not to have to see the world in too clear focus, tells me when she was back home on the island, she looked out her grandmother’s kitchen window in time to glimpse a large bird on its nest,…
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C. Greenfield, Dragons That Fly
Carole Greenfield Dragons That Fly I meet her at the front door every weekday morning. If I don’t, she won’t eat. If I do, she goes with me into the cafeteria, plucks up an apple or orange, sometimes a muffin, maybe even a stick of string cheese. “Take it for snack,” I tell her. “You…
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H. Findlay, Two Haiku
Hugh Findlay Two Haiku all these sick people bent over like crescent moons— look us in the eye Passenger Pigeon, where did you go…finally?Cincinnati Zoo Hugh Findlay’s writing and photography have been published worldwide. Nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2020 for poetry, the Best Microfiction Anthology in 2024 for prose, and the Best of…
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M. Harper, Memoir Map 17
Mary Catherine Harper Memoir Map 17 Mary Catherine Harper, Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award recipient and 2019 Poet in Residence at Cape Cod Fine Arts Work Center (see marycatherineharper.org), has two published collections and numerous poems in journals. As an artist, she has presented her hybrid art/poetry works at the Nelson Gallery in Lansing,…
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D. Zaccagnino, My Baby Fights Sleep
Danielle Zaccagnino My Baby Fights Sleep The Way My Father Fights Death He thrashes wildly against the mattress. He screams.He has two tattoos of the New York Yankees’ logos and one of Jesus Christ. He is brand new to the world. Empathy has yet to find him. He wants his formula and a pacifier. He…
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W. Wisner, Metaphors
Wendy Wisner Metaphors Mom, this morning on my walk, a tree I couldn’t identifyhad already shed its leaves, but a lone white flower lit its branches. So odd, I thought. In a different autumn, you would have said the flower represented hopeor determination. You always thought in metaphors and taught me to do the same.…
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B. McAfee, Poetry
Bob McAfee Poetry I screw words into a poem like forty-watt lightbulbs.Often, the poem smells like a dead fish by Tuesday.Other times, I bake it and leave it on the windowsillto cool like a freshly cooked apple and rhubarb pie.When I open the window to my soul, a burglar sneaks inand absconds with the best…
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E.A. Walker, How Lost Words Haunt Like Wings Behind Glass
Elinor Ann Walker How Lost Words Haunt Like Wings Behind Glass Elinor Ann Walker holds a Ph.D. from UNC-Chapel Hill and is on the poetry staff at River Heron Review. Recent poems appear in AGNI, Nimrod, Plant-Human Quarterly, Plume, Poet Lore, The Southern Review, Terrain, and elsewhere. Her debut chapbook, Fugitive but Gorgeous (forthcoming), won…