Winter 2013: Poetry

Decomposition

by Pat Phillips West

Days grow longer, she finds her husband
wandering around a neighbor’s back yard
after dusk. I’m on my way to Boise, he says.
No mention this time about jumping out of a hatch
in the moon. She gets him home, tucks him in.
He grabs her hand, Do you understand
the importance of keeping death
on the left side of the bed?

Late summer, he leaves a forty dollar tip
for a lunch of half that amount. He reads
for thirty-six hours straight – Edison, Ford,
Lindberg, and Firestone – says, Hymens
and hymnals protect holy stuff
sweet to the ears and to the touch.

Days shorten, sun sits low in the sky. He declares,
I need to check my mushroom crop, crawls
under the bed. She locks the dead bolt,
hides the key. He finds it, opens the front
door, runs out naked in a rain storm, curls up
under a hydrangea bush. She takes his arm,
tries to pull him up from the muck.
He bites her hand.

Poetry Enjoy the richness: thirteen poets, nineteen poems, and a diversity of style and craft.		Prose Three memoirists share their emotional truths in these slices-of-life.		Artwork Our featured artist, as well as painters and photographers, provide colorful visions that will leave you seeing the world in new ways.		Young Voices Three emerging writers share talent and creativity far beyond their years.		Contributors Learn more about the contributors who make us proud of our Winter 2013 edition.

LETTER FROM THE EDITORS POETRY         A Convention of Ordinary Astophysicists Attends by Jodie Marion         A Father's Love by Darlene Pagán         Before Going to Murder by the Book, We Stop at Zell's by Carol Frischmann         Decomposition by Pat Phillips West         Dream by Jodie Marion         Fishtail by Margaret Chula         From the 7th Floor of Doernbecher Children's Hospital by Larina Warnock         Inside the Basilica del Voto Nacional, Quito, Ecuador by Stella Jeng Guillory         Interview with My Mother by Cindy Williams Gutiérrez         Mail Call by Darlene Pagán         Midnight Choices by Kathryn Ridall         My First Butcher by Barbara Drake         On the Banks of the Indian River by Jodie Marion         Placental Abruption by Larina Warnock         Playboys by Andrea Hollander         Saturday Visitation by Kelly Running         The Blizzard of '78 by Darlene Pagán         The Hundred Names of Love by Annie Lighthart         The Old Life by Andrea Hollander PROSE         Bennett's Outing by Julia Clark Salmon         Whale by Lyssa Tall Anolik         Wisdom Tree by Julie Rogers ART         Man with Chicken by Anne John         Ancient Abstract by Anne John         Blowing Bubbles by Betty Joe Armstrong         Stormscape by Jean Harkin         Nick's Jays by Huon Quach         Diptych by Huon Quach YOUNG VOICES         Different by Emily Boring         Old Clock by Erin Blackburn         Drink by Julien Signorini CONTRIBUTORS