Winter 2015: Young Voices

Visions on the Playground

Poetry by Meghana Mysore

Tired popsicle heads bounce back and forth
between the worlds of grass and perspiring skin.
Little feet dance, unhinged, on the slate of cement
dreams. They follow the pulse of some unknown melody,
familiar only to the naive of heart.
They are free, like the swings which carry their bodies.
They don’t know of the chains which fetter them
and they don’t have to.
To them, growing up is a fable.
 
Soon the children will feel cold – cold despite the suffocating
heat, cold although the yellow circle in the sky burns.
They will lie on the grass, the very grass which held
the bodies of the melting popsicles years ago, hungering
for something more sustaining than food.
They will want to understand the unknowable arches 
of the moon, though it evades them, refusing 
to reveal its truths.

They will want to write poems in the dark of the night,
to escape from the phony light of the burning sun.
They will know the word phony, holding Salinger’s Catcher
close to their chests like a bible and they will wonder when,
or if, in this life they’ll be able to catch someone, when in this
life they will be able to catch themselves, save
themselves from falling.
They are teenagers.
 
Not far from here lies the playground of the parents,
lacking the swing-sets and slides, yet bursting
with adventure nonetheless.
Their play is work; their work is watching
the children play. They feel the sun beating down
on their lukewarm chests.
They wonder how the time passed by.
 
Soon the parents’ skin will turn crinkly and old
as if it’s forever being bathed under water.
Baptize, baptize, baptize.
This water is fluid memory, full of reminiscences
of moments past.
Johnny, she calls to her grandson on the swing-set,
but she doesn’t know if it’s his name.
This is old age.

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