INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
Gerald Clark
Lyn Lifshin
Paul B. Roth
Ndue Ukaj
Anne Babson
Laszlo Slomovits
Qinqin Huang
Duane Locke
Adhar Maheshwari
Shutta Crum
Odimegwu Onwumere
Anthony Seidman
Chris Lord
Running Cub
Amit Parmessur
John F. Buckley &
Martin Otto
Joanie Freeman
Alan Britt
Jennifer Burd &
Laszlo Slomovits
Sonnet Mondal
Karyn M. Bruce
John Tustin
Jennifer Burd
Michael Gessner &
Daniel Davis
Martin Camps &
Anthony Seidman
Fred Wolven
M. J. Iuppa
John Grochalski
Catherine O'Brien
Joe Milford
Byron Matthews
Joseph Murphy
Dike Okoro
Ann Arbor Review
is an independent
International Journal & ezine
Copyright (c) 2012
Fred Wolven
All rights revert back to each poet.
--editor / Southeastern Florida
------------------------------------------------
Fred Wolven, editor
Submissions via e-mail:
The once-a-week ritual
of her
bleaching the color
out of each linoleum square.
I tried not to visit
on those days
when the lemon drops she saved
in a mason jar in the cupboard
were an entire floor length away
and my sin of wanting them
so badly
was disinfected
in the endless swaying
of her bent-over body
swishing and swashing
that kitchen floor.
FOR BUMPS
AND OTHER KEY WEST CATS
1.
Sipping the cool breezes
I am mesmerized
by the red-painted toe nails
of the cafe waiter
and the twitching of whiskers
beneath my chair.
2.
I take my map
and check it carefully.
Each cat is historically
landmarked.
3.
I would rather
pay my dues to Hemingway
by sitting with his cats
in the afternoon sun
than by pretending
I appreciate his words.
4.
Counting stars
or counting cats along these sidewalks:
I do not know which is easier.
5.
I detour along the path
toward the City Cemetery
to photograph the graves
and the hollow eyes
of stirring cats.
6.
It is all the same:
the writers who write
then writer of the writers
who have written here
and the cat
chasing its own tail.
It is the cat
which holds my attention.
7.
Shadows quicken.
Through dusty courtyards
cats linger
waiting for scraps of music
to fill the empty night.
8.
When I close my eyes
I can pretend I am anywhere
yet I prefer this town
of two-story wooden houses
and cats wandering
in and out of the sunset.
9.
I return with an autograph
a blue porcelain bowl
and the dream of a brown cat
dreaming she is a cat
dreaming.
Karyn M. Bruce, Biscayne Park, Florida