Winter 2014: Poetry

Motherhood

by Elizabeth Stoessl

Like no Cassatt or Morisot I’ve ever seen
(and what were those placid babies on anyway?
Did they suck in absinthe through their mothers’ milk?)—
this canvas I view through visited windows:
A mother paces the alley behind her house,
and in a football-hold carries her infant girl,
the baby’s angry head pointing
from her mother’s elbow like a bullet
swaddled in tight fleece casing. As they march
the crunching gravel path the baby’s screams
bounce off the sides of houses
into kitchens where neighbors
who’ve heard it and heard it for weeks
no longer rush to their windows.
Then finally—soothed by fall winds whirling
over a scalp red as her birthstone, now calming
to rosy pink—she defends her tiny eyes from the sun,
she closes them, and surrenders. She hushes.

I wonder if this peace could be achieved
by calmer means, more like those stoned
moms and babies in the paintings.
What wisdom do I have to offer this exhausted mother?
She knows how qualified I am: the one
who raised her child’s father—putting him to sleep
face-down (to prevent a sudden death that we now know
my method could have caused),
coercing him to nap in a backseat cardboard box
as I cruised the highways. His unrestrained brother
once shook the box, sending the baby
sliding out and under the front seat,
to lie wedged, screaming, until the next exit.
Somehow, that baby survived my feckless ignorance
and sired this marvel of a girl, inheritor of his Olympian lungs,
the one to whom I surrender and hush.

Poetry Multi-faceted, poignant and inspiring. We’ve caught thirteen never-before-published poems by twelve master-class voices.		Prose Five women share their talent and themselves in new, surprising and heartfelt ways.		Artwork Established craftswomen and aspiring visionaries add colorful richness to our most recent issue.		Young Voices The lyrical language of five young poets will delight you.		Contributors Meet the authors and artists who make the Winter 2014 edition a rich, varied and engaging experience.

LETTER FROM THE MANAGING EDITOR POETRY         After the Ice Storm by Linda Strever         Waiting for a Diagnosis by Linda Strever         Anticipation by Penelope Scambly Schott         How to Survive the Loss of Your Best Friend by Diane Averill         Current Conditions by Carol Ellis         For a Hot Shot by Susan DeFreitas         Focal Distance by Jenna Thompson         Bridge by Jennifer Liberts Weinberg         Motherhood by Elizabeth Stoessl         Nice Girl Regrets by Pattie Palmer Baker         Lost Child Lullabye by Tiah Lindner Rephael         To Inhabit the Body by Willa Schneberg         Love Letter by Annie Lightheart PROSE         Like Water and Stones by B.E. Scully         Messages by Mary Mandeville         Fear Jars by Jessica Zisa         Pie by Susan Lehman         Confinement by Valerie Wagner ART         Where the Buffalo and Unicorn Once Roamed by Katie Todd         Midwestern Dreamin' by Katie Todd         Monday's Child by Sarah Fagan         Sweet Tea by Sarah Fagan         The Daydream by Kendall Madden         Beatrice by Kendall Madden YOUNG VOICES         Chinese Mangos by Sophia Mautz         The Bridge by Kate LeBlanc         Ephemeral by Jillian Briglia         The River by Sheila Panyam         Compost by Sophia Mautz CONTRIBUTORS