(These are excerpts—click on the titles to view the complete poems)

 

Special Feature — Word Poems
Poems containing the words curtain, threaten, brittle, and blaze.

 

Three Poems
 
If I fall through the ice
I am not my hypothermia.
 
CE Chaffin

 

Iris
 
No more bingo nights at the local hall,
or flimsy floral skirts
barn dancing in a shearers' shed.
 
Barbara de Franceschi

 

Two Poems
 
Away from the confines
of the convent my black-toed boots
shine with relief
 
Kathleen Kenny

 

Fish Story
 
They are beautiful children, more attractive than the men who sired them.
 
Geordie de Boer

 

Last Call at Shanny's Tavern
 
In the pallid light of dusk my father looked less
beaten, the black eye from the brawl'd gone gray.
 
Brent Fisk

 

Two Poems
 
My mother still wears her hair in braids
that summer in Oklahoma, a half
continent away from Whidbey Island.
 
LeeAnn Pickrell

 

Two Poems
 
It is not enough to hope for water.
In a dry season, death opens its chasm.
 
Aleah Sato

 

Two Poems
 
The wind's voice runs like a skink
through the leaves, upon
the bluff face, unintelligible
 
David Oestreich

 

Three Poems
 
around june every year,
the sky is fished
out of an inkpot
and hung out to dry
 
Rohith Sundararaman

 

Two Poems
 
He heard it,
the sound of the sun
setting
 
Michael Caylo-Baradi

 

I Can't Look Away
 
people see you got an arms' load
of anything they won't buy it, looks like you're too far
from where you want to be
 
Lafayette Wattles

 

Philosophy while eating Lucky Charms
 
Mom told a joke and I spit hearts,
clovers, blue moons.
 
Jeffrey Calhoun