Summer 2013: Poetry

The Ticking Shirt

by Tricia Knoll

My mother never met a horse she liked,
never a soft touch to ear or blow
in the nose kind of like. She didn’t mind
having her picture taken next to a horse
if a strong man held the reins.

She wore her blue-and-white striped
shirt with pearl-snap buttons
as a foil and twin to my father’s cowboy.
She smiled for a photo, a demure lift of lip
switched on, down pat for a sorority
beauty queen.

He led his kids’ light cavalry
through Rocky Mountain streams
while she rested at the dude ranch,
painting cherry nails,
sunbathing in coconut oil until four,
meeting her dusty family
at the barn, pretender westerner.

After sixty years, the shirt’s cuffs are frayed,
grime at the seams, around the collar.
I’ve used it for half that time gardening,
the pearly-white snaps clicking me in.

Once a time bomb in my closet, a reminder
it’s my mother’s subtle frowns
beyond the camera lens. I was no pretender,
the horse-crazy girl loving every horse
I ever smelled or touched.

After all these years, I accept that shirt fits me
as it once fit her, snug at the breast,
firm at the wrist, dirtier with the years
I saved it. Tick. Tick.

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