We Still Had Scrabble When we lost our way with words, when I could no longer talk to my mother, all utterances turned to confusion – ……….Now that you married your father… We still had Scrabble. Simple joy in adding a good word, working the edge, reaching the dark blue square, or triple word score […]
Domenico Capilongo | FETOSCOPE
fetoscope fetoscope noun fe·to·scope | \ ˈfē-tə-ˌskōp\ definition of fetoscope 1 : an endoscope for visual examination of the pregnant uterus 2 : a stethoscope for listening to the fetal heartbeat my mother works as a receptionist, my father, his grasp of english still slippery, works in a factory down the street. the shipping truck […]
Jessi MacEachern | IDLE AND STEAM
Idle and Steam Obligation exists as a stabilizing force. Without it, our flesh would slide from its bones. This suggests obligation is also a physiological force. And it is, at least insomuch as every social pressure is felt by the body. Sitting in this same spot on the sofa, the right side, the side closest […]
Lauren Carter | ONIONS
Onions This argument is about onions. The proper way to cook them. The shadow of my father, standing over my shoulder, a dark heft, the abused child turned to a man: belittled, cowed, gaslit, instructed to ignore his own father assaulting his mother in front of the three siblings. In the kitchen he tells me […]
Jeff Pearson | “GET WELL SOON” CARDS IN THE BEHAVIORAL DETENTION CENTER
“Get Well Soon” Cards in the Behavioral Detention Center I have black and white prints from Thomas Kincaid, to fill with sharp Crayolas. Winter fleeces of Salmon for these kids sleighing and sleighing. I move scrawls to fill in time. We think you might be ready to go home next Tuesday, they say. Outside, pine […]
Derek Webster | EMERGENCY OPERATION IN CLOUDS
Emergency Operation in Clouds Songs are too happy, sermons too long. Poetry whispers through the cream and the fear until the spin of service calls us to attend. We raise our right arms and scribble a promise, asking language to stand in our stead and fix the burning engines of the underworld. I am here […]
Robert Colman | DRIVING HOME FROM THE RESTAURANT, I FORGET ONE WORD
Driving Home From the Restaurant, I Forget One Word The night is bitter winter chill, the car unfamiliar, streetlights yellowing the driver’s face as he concentrates on the road. Off-guard, my father asks me, “Have you got far to drive tonight?” The car is unfamiliar to him, the streetlights yellow my face, but I don’t […]
Pamela Denyes | SUFFER FOR THE WORDS
Suffer for the Words Did you suffer for the words? Was it painful to put them out when they had come in aright? How did you bear the carnage, the disemboweling of your own fresh first thoughts? Does crimson flow on every page, in bloody bone-cutting sparseness, so clean there’s no meat for the dog? […]
Frances Koziar | ABLEIST
Ableist While you were sending flyers for running groups to people in wheelchairs you sent me a job ad the month after my retirement; a retirement, —I know—that you didn’t agree with, ignorance clouding your sight like a thousand mosquitoes, buzzing over my words of permanent and disability, poisoning your flesh until your tongue cut […]