Fall 2012: Poetry

In 4th Grade, Sally Teaches Me the Bases

by Betsy Fogelman Tighe

In the broad field behind Merion Elementary, where
the heavy-soled shoes of boys playing ball had knocked up
all the grass, leaving dirt puddles we bathed in during recess,
Sally, freckles sprinkling her face like the cinnamon sugar

spread on my toast that morning, leans in close
to tell me she’d learned something major on Saturday,
had notes to share with me. Enumerating slowly
on the ringless fingers of her right hand, she lists:

1st: French kissing, his tongue the doctor’s depressor in your mouth.
2nd: he cups your boob, over the cotton training bra you’re proudly wearing.
3rd: he fingers you, the way the plumber might unclog a sink.
Finally, home base: when he climbs on top and sticks his

thing in you, but it’s too gross to go into further,
and Mrs. Madison is calling us in for more map making which
I’m already failing. The next day, Sal’s details still cling, like
a seeing eye dog that will lead me everywhere from now on

from the classroom to the bus, from the bus stop three blocks home,
from the supper table to the alley, where the kids on my street
play stickball, their voices ringing out the numbers on every hit.
If baseball was the game we all were playing, who was watching

from the bleachers, which of us not watched?
At the junior high pep rallies I huddle with Sal, jeering
at the jocks, the cheerleaders who kept us off their squad,
the vice-principals, their eyes shining at the sport, the tendons

in their fat necks bulging as they shouted the boys to hurry
round the bases and come home. 12 runs to 9. We always won.
Sally never married, but I did. I knew all the rules –
how to walk a man, how to bunt, how to score.

Poetry Fourteen poets fill this section with mothers, daughters, sons; with dreams, promises, hauntings; with joy, pain and what lies in between.		Prose I am a world creator ... . I am a voice finder. (S. H. Aeschliman, “On Voice”) Meet five prose writers who will guide you into unique worlds and invite you to hear their creative voices.		Artwork Three photographers and two painters make the pages of this journal sparkle with color, light, variety.		Young Voices We are proud to introduce five emerging writers whose work shows a depth of talent and creativity that will delight you.		Contributors Here are the 27 authors and artists whose work make our first online issue so extraordinary.

LETTER FROM THE EDITORS POETRY         To the Friend Who Talked Me Down by Amy Schutzer         Memorial Day on South Greeley Avenue by Penelope Scambly Schott         Lost Rubies by Deborah Brink Wöhrmann         Everything between your palms by Jaime R. Wood         315C by Kristen Roedell         In 4th Grade, Sally Teaches Me the Bases by Betsy Fogelman Tighe         Swan Song by Jaime R. Wood         We by Carrie Padian         The Supplicant by Emily Pittman Newberry         Jailhouse Call by Kelly Running         spoon by Brandi Katherine Herrera         my in mind ungrammared kiss by Melanie Green         Beyond Reach by Leah Stensen         You must give up your dead by Kristin Roedell         Tree Ghosts by Tricia Knoll         Personal Interview by Penelope Scambly Schott         Fairy Tale I Haven't Read Yet by Donna Prinzmetal PROSE         One Small Thing Right by Nicole Rosevear         How Mom Played Sad by Sally K. Lehman         Running with Dragons by Trista Cornelius         High Priest by Robin Schauffler         On Voice by S.H. Aeschliman ART         Lush iii by Tina Tran         The Commuter by Denise Hrouda         Which Witch by Denise Hrouda         The Center of Two by Jolyn Fry         A Knot Unties by Jolyn Fry YOUNG VOICES         weight bags by Calli Storrs         No Parking by Frances Bringloe         Falling in Love by Chaquita McClendon         Go On Then, Gunslinger by Allison Stein         Fishing Float by Sage Freeburg CONTRIBUTORS