Caney Fork
by Annette Sisson
Autumn crisps the tapering light, / oak pulls on its auburn duster.
Gratitude
by Scudder Parker
The peonies and gladiolas are more / seductive every fall.
For an Osage Orange Tree (and the names she’ll answer to)
by Angela Winsor
Say Bodark—for a pretty-leafed thing. / Hers are shiny, narrow, smoothed / curves.
Five Pieces to Assemble After the Quarantine
by Molly Lanzarotta
The lover who decides to stay / understands—like you, standing too close on the train— / it’s all about the distance we keep, or give away.
Pillow
by Claire Taylor
yes, my love / I know / a pillow can be forts and mountains / stepping-stones that slide / on hardwood floors and end / in tears.
The Poem of the World
by Scudder Parker
reveals itself / like a doe’s hoof tapping ice / till she can drink.
In Her Last Days
by Peter J. Dudley
the chemo has burned out / and hospice watches / with tender eyes
Directions Back to Childhood
by Judith Waller Carroll
Turn left at the first sign of progress / and follow the old highway / along the Stillwater River.
Saving Sgt. Billings
by Kari Gunter-Seymour
We did what we could, / hid the bottles, drove what / was left of him deep / into the yawning hollow
First Nail
by Brendan Constantine
I take your portrait down to clean / and notice the scar of another / hanging, painted over.
It all began around a campfire…
Beautiful language
is meant to be heard as well as read, and in fact words were vocalized eons before they were ever committed to clay or parchment. Storytelling began around campfires. We seek prose and poetry that continue the tradition.
Contributor Spotlight:
Love and Hot Chicken
by Mary Liza Hartong
Open Contests
by Stephen Parrish, with the editors of The Lascaux Review