Winter 2013: Poetry

Saturday Visitation

by Kelly Running

The line begins to form
at the buzz of the prison fence door.
We march behind the razor wire,
first-timers
and wary many-timers.
Children play their newfound game of
catch me if you can
as they slide along the metal chairs.
Grandpas and Grandmas,
thumbs knarred like aged alder trees,
backs hunched over their knees,
wait for a visit.
Change in Ziploc bags
resembling Easter egg trinkets
bypass the metal detectors
while another line forms.
My underwire bra sounds the alarm,
mimicking a fire drill,
and I’m patted down as visitors watch –
an audience to the crime of motherhood.
Chairs and tables are one
like the union between couples in better days,
bolted to the floor.
We play cards
to pass the time,
but conversation stales and
the guard approaches –
it’s time to leave
because others are waiting.
Back again through the razor wire,
the sharp clank of the prison door
is final,
an exclamation point
until I visit my son again
on Saturday.

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