Summer 2013: Poetry

Commencement

by Kelly Running

This graduation day my son wears no cap and gown.
He wears prison issue blues
and his felony in life
brings an apostrophe of family together.
Rows of chairs spill over blue-clad
inmates’ hard faces –
their shaved expressions
like miniature Mount Rushmores
that show the heroin,
the meth, the toxic relationships
of their lives.
My son, Christmas present to me,
brought to life with a hefty cry,
smiles
in his denim uniform blues
as he winks and flirts at his freedom
like a moth to an incandescent light.
I stand at the podium and speak of hope
and second chances.
Months later I see him at the Starbucks
across from the downtown Italian restaurant,
and I don’t recognize him.
His posture and face grown old,
I offer him a meal at the Virginia Café.
Inside the restaurant through wet panes of glass,
I see the silhouettes of rain-soaked trees
that remind me of the sea of blue,
inmates reaching toward freedom’s light,
dreaming of release –
life’s castaways –
moths caught in their own flames.

Poetry Rich, strong, poignant, humorous and inspiring. We’ve caught twenty never-before-published poems by sixteen unique voices.		Prose Seven talented women search for themselves in their bodies, their family, themselves.		Artwork Established dynamos and aspiring voices add colorful visions to our third issue.		Young Voices Language leaps off the page in the poetry and prose of five young authors who delight in sensory detail.		Contributors Meet the authors and artists who make this Summer 2013 edition a rich, varied and engaging experience.

LETTER FROM THE EDITORS POETRY         Abandoned Church by Tanya Jarvik         Commencement by Kelly Running         Depoe Bay by Wendy Thompson         Directive by Cristina White         Hawk Moth by Wendy Thompson         How to Recycle Love Letters by Jennifer Dorner         I Swapped a '74 Mustang for This by Jennifer Fulford         Polaroid of My Mother by Cindy Stewart-Rinier         Lover, Molester, and Maidens (Haibun) by Margaret Chula         Savory by Pat Phillips West         Seascape by Marjorie Power         Suspended by Grace Kuhns         The Hand-Off by Pattie Palmer-Baker         The Ride by Linda Ferguson         The Ticking Shirt by Tricia Knoll         Three Facts about Sperm by Ursula Whitcher         Three True Stories by Penelope Scambly Schott         Today at the Library by Pat Phillips West         Trapped Birds by Grace Kuhns         You, who will be alive and reading after I'm gone by Penelope Scambly Schott PROSE         After the World Ends by Kait Heacock         Something Permanent by Ashley-Renée Cribbins         Your Hand at Your Throat by Karen Guth         Black Sharpie by Anne Gudger         Diagnosis by Helen Sinoradzki         For He's a Jolly Good Fellow by Laura Stanfill         Breathing Underwater by Valerie Wagner ART         Unity by Anne John         Rearguard by Anne John         Speculation by Anne John         Wire by Jocelyn White         Taitian Trio by Nani Chesire         Catch Your Breath by Nani Chesire YOUNG VOICES         We Will Read to You by Rebecca Cleveland-Stout         Strawberry Party by Natalie Lerner         A Young Night by Clara Beaumont         Beach Wanderer by Isabella Waldron         Light and Dark by Colette Au CONTRIBUTORS