INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
Alan Britt
Shutta Crum
Jumoke Verissimo
Las Slomovits
Richard Kurtz
Lyn Lifshin
Duane Locke
Serena Wilcox
Jerry Blanton
Dami Ajayi
Odimegwu Onwumere
Joanie Freeman
Dike Okoro
Amit Parmessur
Paul B. Roth
Divya Rajan
Kim Keith
Fred Wolven
C. Derick Vann
Al Ortolani
Steve Barfield
Jim Davis
Chris Lord
Jennifer Burd
Will Swanson
Isabel Kestner
Lisa Schmidt
Running Cub
Tolu Ogunlesi
While cast out into the waves
the wish escapes from
the stone shell.
To be grey pearl perfect
mirror ball, smooth
delicate skin, ball bearing
unbreakable on which
worlds, clocks, wheels
could revolve.
Not like gravel, stepped
on and kicked away like a foul beggar
at an Easter Day
Parade.
At the edge of the jetty
oysters are pulled from
the sea. Soul and
shell severed as they
are thrown by the
hands of a four year old
girl, out into
the sea again.
She does not know what pearl means.
EVERY NIGHT THE DREAM COMES CLEARER
At the abdomen of the mountain
in a clear cellophane blue lake
delicate carved statues stand
fixed in mid-ascent.
Phoenix.
Unicorn.
Pegasus.
Their weathered eyes begging
the sky for drought,
or rain.
Either
will deliver the necessary
change.
To drown would be the end.
In drought would be dry ground.
Isabel Kestner, Hazlet, New Jersey