Winter 2013: Poetry

The Blizzard of '78

by Darlene Pagán

Nothing stopped a school day but a power outage
or a fever over 102˚, until that morning the snow
blows one polar stream up into another and we have
to dig trenches out the front door and climb out
on all fours into a desert that drifts for miles.

Winds whip powder up into miniature tornadoes.
When it stops, our voices stick in our ears
as if we’ve been sealed in a tomb. We hear
the deafening thud of a frozen apple

falling from a tree. Only from an upstairs window
can we see the farm houses shrunk in the distance.
My sister whines how she wants to go to school
to finish coloring in pictures of peonies.

My mother takes her hand. My father tugs
the window up, crawls into the frame, and whistles
before he leaps. Legs and arms spinning, he lands
with a grunt; it’s as close to a giggle as he gets.

Between the cornfields and horses, the trucks
and tractors, they hustle even to bed, eating supper
as if someone might steal their plates. Now, my father
lies in the snow like a prince. Mother tucks
her legs up and follows, her squeal a balloon leak.

The height makes me queasy but my sister climbs
the ledge and flies with her arms outstretched.
They catch her like a prize, these strangers,
waving me down, huddling together
as if for a portrait in a phony winter scene.

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