Today is like Denmark A fingerprint dragged across the mirror Fine silt drifting through the afternoon air Who is Iginla? What does Lem mean? I catch the lid of the saucepan As it slides onto the stove The ruddy circles of the electric burners Ruddier when splashed with Tabasco Ruddier still the night I opened […]
Poetry
Cities and Years by Frederick Pollack
1 I seem to live on and on. Perhaps I should make more of an effort. But while I still hobble— rather like Chaplin, that first angel of popular culture to descend to us— I’m included in groups like this. And group photos, once we have crossed the quadrangle of whatever college this is. (It […]
The Silver Surfer Goes Shopping for an Engagement Ring by Mark Parsons
Silver body paint streaks and runs as black down my arm. The fourth needle breaks off right in the crook of my elbow. The oily suspension requires a bigger gage. Anyway, Mother’s no good at injecting. An orange smear where Mother swabs my arm. In display cabinets overhead Swiss army knives ape sublime, getting smaller […]
For Tameness by Kate Partridge
Like you, I cannot resist the impulse to watch animals eat. I invite a bearded goat to munch from my palm. I have never appreciated facial hair. Rather, the imprecision of elephants cupping fluids in their trunks. The arrangement of the pellet dispenser on a fence. Gumball machines inside a buffet. On a road trip […]
The Family Pet by Tara Mae Mulroy
As a boy, Nathaniel careened around the yard, drooling, braying, fist in his mouth, always running; the family duck always chasing him, always watching him. When it caught him, its beady black eyes bright, it puffed up, rocked its head like a pendulum on its spindle of a neck, honked, pecked him in the chest. […]
Brimstone Butterfly in April by Eduard Mörike (translated by Maggie Roseneau)
Cruel sun of springtime, your waking is impetuous, Only in the joy of May thrives tender fare of mine! There is no dear young girl who, from her rosy lip, offers me a honey drip, so miserably I wane and May will never see me in my yellow dress. Citronenfalter im April Grausame Frühlingssonne, du […]
This Thought of Susan by John McKernan
Is probably What powdered uranium tastes like Yes She was the word floozie to a T But that word Does not rhyme with the word pain Why am I looking again at these photos We’re sleeping on some white beach at midnight Who could have taken this picture ? What an intriguing corpse I’ll make My brain loves […]
Hello Zero by John McKernan
How quick you are Little wheel To appear on the page As if You were Going somewhere To me You are still That gasp of horror O or OH You think You created a clever disguise Loitering next to the number NO But I know a real alias when I see one Noose Noose Noose Return to table […]
Carnival by Marcel Lecomte (translated by K.A. Wisniewski)
Holà this evening my comrades my good comrades my cow-boys my Sioux my Chinese my Apaches the streets the streets of the big city vibrating with the hum from turns and motors and thousands of wheels that spin at the same time on the soft streets that shines like polished ice the streets I tell […]
Oh, So You’re an Actor? by Anthony Jones
Listen— I coach basketball in the South Bronx that’s what I do and earlier today we lost in the city playoffs our fourth quarter comeback came up three points short and after the game I sat by my favourite player a little lefty point guard with a big heart who doesn’t take shit from anybody […]
