Summer 2013: Young Voices

Strawberry Party

Poetry by Natalie Lerner

The dirt is hard and cracked, dust crumbling under my knees
And floating in the hot air. The sky is already bright blue.
My hands are full of strawberries, misshapen red blooms,
Full of the flavor of summer.
The juice runs down my chin, pink tracks dribbled down my shirt
And my brother’s. Our hands are stained too, little red scraps under our fingernails
As we rise from the dust, cardboard flats weighed down with heaps of Shuksan variety berries
Because those are the best kind.
Seven and a half pounds, says the little white scale in the booth,
And after that eight pounds and then seven and a quarter and then I lose track
Of all the boxes we are bringing home.
Piled in the blue van, my dad and brother and Lee and Terri Jo and Larry and me,
We listen to “Strawberry Fields Forever”
And smell the hot, sweet perfume of fresh-picked berries.

At home, the green of the grass and the foxglove and the mimosa tree is overwhelming,
Echoed by the celadon tablecloths covering the cheap rented tables,
Those same ones we get every year.
My brother runs through the backyard, hands full of empty water balloons,
Yelling about trying to fill one with jell-o.
Standing in the kitchen, my mouth is full of berries,
Each one bursting with sun and joy and June.
Crimson juice is everywhere, pooled in the cracks between the countertop tiles
And staining the sink basin, and
Sticky pink fingerprints speckle the white cupboards.
Red and yellow and sunlight wash over me and I breath in summer
Because this is happiness
To be surrounded by strawberries.

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 Maindens (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