INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

Chris Lord
Joseph McNair
Duane Locke
Lazlo Slomovits
Alan Britt
Shutta Crum
Tolu Ogunlesi
Jerry Blanton
Paul B. Roth
Fred Wolven
Felino Soriano
Sharon E. Boyd
Joanie Freeman
Jumoke Verissimo
Running Cub
Jeanpaul Ferro
S. P. Flannery
Kristina Marie Darling
Gary Beck
Dike Okoro
Karyn M. Wolven

KEY WEST MEMORIES

As I walk into this morning
of gentle yellow heat
I can smell the French bread
as women and children
bicycle past me
the over brown loaves
protruding
from wire baskets.

Turning the corners
I find the abandoned streets,
cracked, upturned sidewalks,
white-washed house fronts,
and the flapping of wet clothes
on weatherworn banisters.

And I think of you, miles away
opening book after book
searching for yourself
in the darkness
of your poems.

I stop to pet a cat
sleeping on a sunlit porch.
One eye opens, closes.
He stretches
in and out
of a dream.

My hair lifts
in the ocean breeze
brushing my face
as I wander toward
Whitehead Street.
I wonder if Hemingway
ever read Roethke?


Karyn M. Wolven, Biscayne Park, Florida