(Click on the titles to view the poems)

 

Special Feature — Word Poems
Poems containing the words clerk, furry, chrome, and bleach.
Includes a special invitation for the next issue.

 

To My Husband, Who Builds Porch Steps
 
Where sapling trees grew through the floor
and out a window, you gave thanks—
the war long past, the soreness in you gone  
 
Chris Potter

 

Two Poems
 
I'll compose an urban myth about myself—
all innuendo and quirky incident. Warhol
will be sorry he never met me.  
 
Kathryn Koromilas

 

Cool Grass Sigh
 
We once had eyes like open palms,
before our skulls hardened and fists clenched.  
 
Annalynn Hammond

 

Gacela of a Wedding Day
 
This will always be the way love enters a room—with a hush.
She becomes the focus of light and the silence such light brings.  
 
J.P. Dancing Bear

 

Two Poems
 
They buy me drinks
light my virgin cigarettes
smooth my traffic jam hair
caress my bristled back  
 
Beatríz Cedillo

 

Two Poems and a Translation
 
When the soul becomes uneven,
one hears the roar of lions and
the thunder of churchbells  
 
Silvia Antonia Brandon Pérez

 

Two Poems
 
The noise assaults like a solid thing,
and a million discs shine briefly,
a raucous dive for a metal tub.  
 
D.W. Hayward

 

The Hanging
 
our fingers stuttered
on the exchange of rings
as if suddenly bloated
overnight to escape hanging  
 
Arlene Ang

 

Note to Jesus
 
Tell me—how prophetic
is it when you wake up two
nights in a row at 2:11?  
 
Carol Krauss

 

Childhood with Lobster
 
He said someone so young should be more obvious
And made me wear a baguette on my head.
You could look like a toreador he said, or William Tell  
 
Andrew Boobier

 

Two Poems
 
mothers and fathers weigh so little
their own children might have
buried them—
but they went before  
 
Teresa White

 

The Perimeters of Immortality
 
In the blue turbid gloom
of tropical twilight,
the monsoon is poised on gossamer  
 
Srinjay Chakravarti

 

It was just an aisle imitation
 
a line of crows on your telephone line
looked like an omen to me
but you liked the sleekness of their feathers  
 
jj goss

 

Importance of What Is
 
resemblance matters:
string through the pearls
which otherwise would spill  
 
JB Mulligan

 

The Saugus
 
Nothing's like a river's
to and fro against the sea,
tide-wash, catch of kelp, air sting
full of briny sea's salad smells  
 
Tom Sheehan