Summer 2014: Poetry

Summer, When Green Turns

by Cindy Stewart-Rinier

Hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk,
            the grownups say, their weeping
                        cocktail glasses in hand,
 
their measure of heat meant to impress.
            Craving glamour, my parents dance
                        through the summer of ’64
 
at Nat Park where Tommy Dorsey plays,
            Dad in his sports coat, Mom
                        in her blue dress and matching
 
stiletto shoes, while we teeter on the fence
            between excitement & danger.
                        We play barefoot kick the can
 
at dusk – one eye out for whoever’s it,
            the other for the neighbor boy
                        who gives us the creeps – 
 
then pile into the living room in time to watch
            Hitchcock’s shadow step into
                        his nine-stroke caricature.
 
There, we imbibe the blue light of black & white,
            of sexuality served up with a violent twist,
                        preferring its fictions over the real
 
suspense of not knowing whether Dad’s drunk will be
              jolly or careen like shadows in a funhouse ride,
                         fill the night with shrieks & screams.
 
By day, we squat at the end of the driveway,
            stirring puddles of oil spewed onto
                        Assembly Street by road crews,
 
our heads filling with clouds of volatile
            organic compounds while we watch the woods
                        across the street, where Ponderosas
          
drop their rust needles, their cones. Where tear-shaped
             pitch seeps. Where, four years earlier,
                        police found the murdered nine-year-old

body of Candy Rogers at the bottom of the old quarry
             under a blanket of pine duff
                         as if asleep.

Poetry Sweet, evocative, haunting: Delight in 19 poems to please every palate.		Prose What does it take to be a woman, sister, mother, child, lover and friend? Share the struggles six non-fiction writers have with these roles.		Artwork Five local artists, a variety of media, and new insights into our world. Enjoy the unique visions of these extraordinary women.		Young Voices Savor the poetry and prose of five talented young authors whose voices you will want to hear again and again.		Contributors Meet the 25 authors and 5 artists whose voices and visions enliven the fifth edition of our journal.

LETTER FROM THE MANAGING EDITOR POETRY         Out of Eden by Melanie Green         Under the Tongue by Cindy Stewart-Rinier         it wasn’t the rain by Ann Sinclair         And the King Was in the Counting House by Geraldine Foote         Aurelia Aurita: Moon Jelly by Lois Rosen         What Cape Alava Was Like Then by Linda Strever         ʻAʻā by Burky Achilles         Still Life With Cabbage by Margaret Chula         Mother of the Drowned Child by Penelope Scambly Schott         Summer, When Green Turns by Cindy Stewart-Rinier         Relic by Jennifer Foreman         From the yes column of “is there a god?” checklist by Jennifer Foreman         Binders Full of Women by Shawn Aveningo         Even in February Every Woman Wants to Be a Feast by Claudia Savage         Weddings I Have Ruined by Tanya Jarvik         Thicker Than Water by Claudia Savage         Weekend Wayfarers by Elizabeth Stoessl         Wordscape by Tanya Jarvik         Talking Herself into Onward by Melanie Green PROSE         Tribes by Thea Constantine         Carnage by Heidi Beierle         Owyhee Barbie by Marylynne Diggs         Permeable Divide by Kamala Bremer         Pepper Anderson Meets the Amazon by Linda Ferguson         The Day I Stopped Typing by Kate Comings ART         Brooke by Oriana Lewton-Leopold         Elizabeth by Oriana Lewton-Leopold         Silence Considered by Carole Murphy         The Egg Sisters by Carole Murphy         Garden Gate by Koka Filipovic         Purple Shade in the Garden by Koka Filipovic         Untitled with a Flamingo by Amy Robinson         It's My Party by Amy Robinson YOUNG VOICES         A Work of Art by Leilani Garcia         What the Bees Did to Me by Colette Au         Things I never said by Molly Benson         Wabi-Sabi by Janet Webster         Foresters by Sophia Mautz CONTRIBUTORS