MAYDAY

Remembering Ophelia (1852)
by Anna Leahy

Contributed By:

I made a pretty painting,
secured a reputation
with Ophelia. The secret is
laudanum—the floaty-floaty feeling—
and the shiver-chill
when the fire went out
under the tub
and left my teeth to clatter;
that’s what created my pallor,
gave the brush its worthy goal.
I held my quiet pose, always anxious
for verbal intercourse, though not
for the real thing.

          Elizabeth Siddal (1829-1862) was an artist’s model, a painter, and a poet
associated with the Pre-Raphaelites and married to Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

Return to table of contents for Issue 9 Summer 2015.

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Filed Under: Poetry

Further Reading

Persian Night
by Douglas Cole

She placed a cup of the hot elixir on the counter before me. On the surface of the cup little dragonfish swirled around like visual laughter. I felt my stomach tighten and my heart speed up. Here we go . . .

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 […]

Contributor Bios for Issue 12 Winter 2018

Issue 12 Winter 2018 RUTH AWAD is an award-winning Lebanese-American poet whose debut poetry collection, Set to Music a Wildfire, won the 2016 Michael Waters Poetry Prize from Southern Indiana Review Press. She is the recipient of a 2016 Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award, and her work has appeared in New Republic, The Missouri Review Poem of the Week, Sixth […]

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