Winter 2015: Poetry

Lineage

by Amy Schutzer

The mash-o-matic
flattens one breast at a time
into a plain of veins, ducts and fatty tissue,
as wild as any grasses, the diversity of cells,
any one of which could falter by some onslaught
of hormone or car exhaust strafing, or
stress, which is a vast country of assassins and
strife, the cells lowering down their robber masks,
to rob this chunk of flesh blind.

When will they invent a kinder machine?

Pinching, pulling, plopped on the tray, 
the tech cinches the breast down tight
then one final turn and tug
as if the breast could ever escape or shift
to its own best view – full on nipple beaming.
Why not a cup to lean into
tender squeezing,
like a lover, the right amount of pressure
for the breast to offer itself up,
not flayed, not road kill steamrolled,
but in its hilled dimensional glory
a panoramic, 3D exploration.

Then I wait, without breathing, 
while the button is pressed.
Years this process repeats,
these pinpointing rays of radiation
to ferret out whether the lineage of my mother's
genes are unfolding in a similar way:
cancerous, murderous.
The hesitation before the machine releases
each breast to resume the shape they have known
not as something to be smashed like clay
between two plates of chilled plastic, 
but stately, if not a bit sliding-down-hillside,
certainly in need of a admiring touch.

Poetry Through the magic of language, 20 poets challenge us to write and live bravely.		Prose Five risk-taking voices burn with the fire of transformation.		Artwork Four artists share their diverse sensibilities as confident mark-makers.		Young Voices With clear eyes and articulate voices, five young women confront terrifying aspects of human experience.		Contributors Meet the authors and artists – from first-timers to well-established – who grace our sixth issue with their voices and visions.

LETTER FROM THE MANAGING EDITOR POETRY         A Great Wild Goodness by Annie Lighthart         Going South by Christine Gray         a welcome week by Hannah Sams         Ophelia, at Fifty, in a Blue Blow-up Canoe by Deborah Dombrowski         A Passing Music by Barbara LaMorticella         Girl Fishing with Grandpa by Helen Kerner         Perimeter by Amy Schutzer         Two Poets in the Weight Room by Tricia Knoll         Skeletons by Christa Kaainoa         A Poem for Dany by Suzy Harris         Lineage by Amy Schutzer         The Bucket by M.K. Moen         Bernier River by Christine Dupres         Silence by Margie Lee         Advice by Donna Prinzmetal         Sometimes at Night by Jennifer Pratt-Walter         Fissure by Elizabeth Moscoso         Whale by Cathy Cain         In the Modern World by Annie Lightheart         Love poem to an acquaintance by Allegra Heidelinde         Dialogue between Magician and Tattooist by Christine Gray         Under the sign of the water bearer by Jennifer Kemnitz         city spacious heart by Pearl Waldorf PROSE         Bless Our Great Nation, Zambia! Zambia! by Gypsy Martin         Liminal by Stephanie Golisch         The Tomorrow Fire by Kelly Coughlin         Ablaze by Heather Durham         Left As It Was, It Would Come Apart by Jackie Shannon-Hollis ART         Sibling 1 by Michelle Latham         Sibling 2 by Michelle Latham         Sibling 3 by Michelle Latham         Totem by Kelly Neidig         Stratum by Kelly Neidig         Swift by Kelly Neidig         Breaking Free by Erin Leichty         Capture Threads by Erin Leichty         Hardware by Erin Leichty YOUNG VOICES         Visions on the Playground by Meghana Mysore         Chasing Thunder by Berkeley Franklin         Elegy for Christy by Lily Boyd         Social Media by Maya Coseo         A Hundred Acre Wood by Audra McNamee CONTRIBUTORS