Winter 2013: Poetry

Interview with My Mother

by Cindy Williams Gutiérrez

Just two things:
Loving and feeling loved.
What really matters?

Growing up on the ranch.
All the nights we listened
to my sister Hilda’s stories.
We didn’t have TV then.
She used to keep us in suspense –
until the day she became a bookkeeper
and stopped being the keeper of our stories.
What do you remember?

The jokes Tony played on me –
when he took the clean white sheets
off the clothes line and rattled my window
dressed like Casper. I screamed and ran
to Mother. Immediately she suspected
the culprit: “¿Dónde está Toño?”
What still makes you laugh?

Not finishing school.
Not learning how to cry.
What do you regret?

How to forgive: give it time.
What did you learn from your father?

Faithfulness. And having faith.
What did you learn from your mother?

You don’t know when to quit.
What did I learn from you?

Hilda visits me. Now that she’s dead,
she wants me to finish telling her stories.
Why can’t you sleep?

Just one thing: anti-wrinkle cream.
What would you like to take with you?

She laughs uncontrollably.
I join her, unable to contain myself.
What would you like to leave behind?

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