Travel Advisory Level 4: Arkansas
Buckle up for one writer’s perspective
New Leaf Literary is facing criticism
I guess New Leaf needs to turn over a new leaf.
Get it?
Most banned authors of all time


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.