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Summer 2014: Poetry


Thicker Than Water

 
He is not even here,
but the dinner conversation is going badly,
the guests are talking about some perceived evil:
oil and gas drilling, ranching, or pork
in such a way that the tone slants toward that place
where country people are only huddling,
dull-eyed sheep bleating for Jesus.

The guest who swirls her Cabernet is delicate in candlelight.
The guest who shivers, doubting the fact that I can shoot, compliments
my green beans. They are forking in the roasted potato, the room.
I want to show the guy my left hook
instead of the apple tart. This
I can stop.

Loving him muddied a line inside me.

I want to tell them, there is a woman in a wheelchair echoing
the blue hills’ rain whether or not I am there to listen.
There is a cabin above the plum orchard
that you must stoop to enter. For 130 years
its planks let the world in. At dusk a bluebird’s
call can carry through the blackberry to greet
the twilight.

There is his grandfather trying to save that
man falling into the cement pit, thick dust blinding.
There is his father pushing brooms through the
high school halls to fill his belly.
There is him, hiking into the mountains
in three feet of snow, gusts urging it below 20,
for so many hours that his fingers lose
their sense of touch and never regain it.
And how he didn’t complain
as I wrapped blanket after blanket around him,
the skin on his knuckles elephantine,
cheeks furious with wind.

I want to tell them, no hillside will ever
sigh at your return. No pine sweeten.

His people never trusted me, and now,
have even less reason to,
still, he made his history mine.

He said this mountain will turn your legs to ghosts. These vines
are good for thickening. He lengthened his vowels
in the curve of my ear till they nested, sun-filled snakes.

Without him, I fear the clay rivers
will not recognize me. I fear there will be no welcoming
hillside, no leaf-tinged light. I fear I will be stuck
hearing Northeasterners chew their fattened beef
at my table forever.



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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.

Table of Contents Button
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