Volume 8, Number 1
Excerpts
Ghosts of 1952
by Ed Skoog
The man presents himself to the police
and pushes a gun in a grease-stained bag
across the desk, the grease from hot dogs
he’d bought his kidnapped lover at midnight
along with a bottle of milk, all this after
he’d led her by elbow out of the hotel
all this after shooting a man in the way
a man who would never exactly become
my grandfather, except in news clippings
and some other hard to unemploy fantasy
following my own selfish star or river.
Love talked the murderer back into civilization
its dawn and dawn evens its shadows out
even a half-century later as I drive
my country mind through the city
past police stations, police cars, bike cops
jealous of my grandfather for having a sin
so heavy to unburden, so easy to articulate
like waking up a ladder, or folding a curtain.
I Dream I Am The Girl Toward Whom Columbus Rushes
by Mary Szybist
that I am the one, by hand and tongue
picking the seeds from a star fruit
its waxy skin cool on my fingers—
the one on the shore in the dawn
brushing the bangs from my forehead
brushing the languid flies—
everyone still in their hammocks
the iguanas asleep, the wild parrots beginning to stir
I am the one on the island’s edge
intertwined with the seaweed, the yellow-gold pulp
of my fruit, the shore studded
with half-shells, brainless sea-stars
I am the girl beyond the tide pools
stepping through slippery eelgrass, stepping
over pieces of skull worn to hives—
I am there as the high palms
sway, the white sails
widen—I dream it as I have no right to
dream it, as my moment——
like a girl on a float in a parade, a crown
of roses spilling red
and yellow petals on my
shoulders, at my feet, as the gold
fruit sweetens my tongue, as the
green iguanas unfasten
their dreams, I dream
I am the girl the wind holds, the languid flies sting
the girl on the shore in the dawn, the one
watching the ships
making their motionless way
$6-
Shipping included in all prices.
Contributors
Alec Hershman
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Barbara Drake
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Carl Adamshick
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Ed Skoog
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Edith Sodergran
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Elizabeth Colen
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Evan Hansen
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Gary McDowell
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Heather Christle
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James Capozzi
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Jeff Alessandrelli
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John Gallaher & G.C. Waldrep
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John Pursley III
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Kate Nuernberger
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Mark Seidl
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Mary Szybist
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Matthew Gavin Frank
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Molly Schaeffer
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Robyn Art
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Travis Mossotti
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Wendy Willis
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