Mud Season Review
Stitch
By Wendy Willis
I can barely keep up with the news,
noting the notations, annotating the annotations,
calling roll for the last reluctant mammals.
Even the Hammond B will be held
to account in the tally of usefulness.
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1. Siddhartha
By Abhay K
I must have been cruel
to turn my face from my young wife
my newborn
longing for my lullabies.
I secretly fled at night
without goodbyes
riding my beloved horse the night through
who died exhausted at dawn.
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Netsuke
By Luisa Igloria
How many worlds could fit into a leather pouch, strung
through cord and looped around the waist? Wood
or ivory, horn or bone–antlers and hooves,
miniature wings and fins, even the tiny pulleys
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Kissing Boys
By Jim Richards
When was the last time I kissed him,
my eldest son, on the mouth?
I can’t remember. When did I start
turning away and offering cheek
instead of lips? Somewhere between
our last kiss and today’s awkwardness
we forgot the words to an old song.
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The Summer of Manmade Miracles
By Karen J. Weyant
I dumped grapejuice into Gallagher Run,
hoping the muddy swirls would turn into wine,
and pretended the stale Angel Food cake
old Mrs. Rogers threw to the birds was really
manna from heaven. Evenings, I decided…
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Curb Appeal
By James Reidel
The burnt orange of a dying coral reef,
The pockmarked brick,
The paint peels,
Which blister in great petals and dogears,
Which unfold on closer inspection to reveal an older layer of
color,
That someone else got it right—
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Limitations
By Darren Morris
My mother, who is dead,
has come to ask me questions
about how I am living my own life.
We talk about other things.
She lights another cigarette,
which pours out of her like milk.
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Hotel Room
by Diana Whitney
The anonymous urge
wells up unbidden: the crisp bed
like a blank canvas
expansive with potential,
lily sheets stretched taut
over the bare frame…
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Chronos in the Kitchen
by Sandra Kolankiewicz
At some point the cats—who routinely prowl
the windowsills and countertops to stare
out the back window and make little sounds
about the birds—must have stepped on the clock
radio in the corner, setting the
time so the station comes to life at 5…
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Turning Forty
by Bibhu Padhi
I imagine a blue deeper than the sky,
despairing the Bay of Bengal’s
depth and nightly activity.
A child’s slim voice rises through
the sea’s midnight slush, echoing from
the distance of the years, and then is lost.
What distance of time comes in between…
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From Tectonics
by Josh Booton
to chart each chasm volley the soft rock
down how down somewhere inside
besides which side
are you on
the rocks colliding
a slow commotion as they fall & all
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Before the Funeral
by Deirdre Lockwood
The orange juice is grey. My father keeps
calling me Mary. (His youngest sister’s name.)
Every five minutes the newsprint swirls
beneath his eyes. We look away, out
the kitchen windows to the aftertaste
of snow along the sidewalk. Gravel, rock
salt, and the rust-edged grass between the cracks…
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Waffle House, West Fillmore, April 2006
by Brock Jones
He says it’s his turn to pay
so I wait by the door
on the far side of a mid-morning
crowd of diners waiting for seats.
Music trickles from ceiling speakers
barely heard over voices and coffee spoons.
A bald cook taps the grill with a spatula
and wipes his neck.
A couple holds hands
across a table.
Markose, who kills himself in four months,
passes bills over a counter…Read more
On the Family Mantle
by Diandra Holmes
My great grandfather fit into a cigar box
when he was born. His fingers were pale,
wrinkled like poorly rolled cigarettes.
They thought to place his cradle
in the trash heap next to the blue glass bottles
and empty tins of sardines…
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Hitler Stamp
by Paul Hostovsky
I traded ten triangular
Mongolian stamps for Hitler,
Hitler who killed my father’s
whole family.
My father hated Hitler.
He refused to say Hitler’s name…
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The Seven Last Words
by Terry Minchow-Proffitt
Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing. (Luke 23:34)
Looks like we’ll spend the better part
of Valentine’s Day together
at the cancer center, sitting
with our backs against the window
beneath this morning light…Read more
Almost a Mother
by Artress Bethany White
The sight of a postpartum belly
recalls the missing folds
of loose flesh between her own hips
declaring she’d never
given birth, but was once
almost a mother.
It is the heart that contracts
in these moments
instead of the womb…Read more
Morning Prayers
by David Biespiel
Your God says look behind you,
watch your back,
Become the life in your hands,
walk like a shadow,
Lose the afternoon,
knot the hour,
seek the future,…Read more