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Winter 2013: Poetry


Playboys

My first was the one I spotted
in the basement storage closet
stacked with the Newsweeks
and Good Housekeepings
behind the tower of empty
shoe boxes my parents saved
in case one of the birds died
or my brother wanted a garage
for his toy cars or I a bed for a doll.

I found my second, the morning
I was sent to fetch an empty
coffee mug from the nightstand
on my father’s side of their bed.
The woman on the cover resembled
my sixth grade teacher dressed
in only a lacy, white camisole
and lacy, white underpants, her navel
exposed, a pair of long, black fishnets
almost all the way up her thighs.

I stood beside their bed and turned
from one glossy woman to the next
until I came to the centerfold,
which I opened slowly, wanting
to take in what was hidden
but wanting to take it one careful
moment at a time, the way I opened
birthday presents, not thinking at first
of my father at all, my mouth agape
at her complete, uncomplicated
nakedness, then startled enough to wonder
what he wanted with these women
when he had my mother, and later,
when she shouted up from the kitchen,
I worried if I should tell her and if I did
what she would do about it.



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Poetry Thumbnail Art   Prose Thumbnail Art   Artwork Thumbnail Art   Young Voices Thumbnail Art   Contributors Thumbnail Art
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.

Table of Contents Button
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