INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
Duane Locke
Elisavietta Ritchie
Sam Cornish
Alan Britt
Shutta Crum
Joseph McNair
Geoffrey Philip
Lazlo Slomovits
Gerald Clark
Chris Lord
Coleman Barks
Marisella Veiga
Joanie Freeman
Dave Etter
Steve Barfield
scharCbear
Michael D. Long
Karyn M. Wolven
Running Cub
Silvia Scheibli
You sleep,
Curled up,
One foot outside the blankets.
By the bed
I stand,
Bare feet on your blue shirt,
And watch the jealous snow
Feign innocence against our window.
I will not wake you.
Wanting instead,
What dreams may linger
Unaware,
In the head of our bed,
In the cold clear morning of this room.
FOR THE DIRT POOR, AIN'T NOTHIN'
FANCY 'BOUT DYING
(for all my Grandmothers)
Up the holler, at night, a panther screams
like a woman dyin'.
Truth be told, womenfolk 'round here
ain't
got that kind of energy.
So long as there's corn bread coolin' on
the cook-top,
the dyin' just lay down under a quilt and
whisper
to the weathered, sickle-shaped men
besides them,
"It don't bother me none."
Shutta Crum, Ann Arbor, Michigan