Prose, Poetry, and Art since 1956
Essie’s got hair like a dried dandelion. So blonde it’s almost gray, all scraggly thin and light looking. So short you can see right through to her scalp. Sitting in the desk behind her, I like to imagine I’m blowing on the top of her head. I pretend I’m watching the little pieces of hair scatter in a thousand different directions—hair floating up to the…
Piebold, Maryellen. “Work By 15th-century Female Artist Discovered Moldering in Monastery Basement.” The Adventurous Traveler. Retrieved online: 3 May, 2019. The books on the shelves of the San Francesco sopr’Arno monastery in the Tuscan village of Sieci were almost entirely damaged by a burst water pipe in 2010 that went undetected for nearly two years. The flood ruined an estimated two hundred rare manuscripts and…
translated from the Slovenian by Brian Henry In the Morning Infidels measure their prey by the length of an oar. In every sea there’s some angel in a sunken bell. One day the Pacific Ocean will vanish. We’re making a new Pacific Ocean. It’s an enormous task. The heat is severe. The weight of all this water quenches a bit, but not enough. One must use symbolism for the launching of ships. This pleases the meek. Tomcat,…
for Tchiya Amet To ascertain what measures the offender usedthat allowed him to evade detection and apprehension,we have assembled a research team. Please remove all your clothing,including undergarments,and place them in this bag. ((lightis directional)) The more proficient offendercan elude law enforcement10 or more timesleading to the hypothesisthat a task force is needed Put on this paper gownwhich opens in the backlike you. ((light is…
Already dusk, the geese, half wild, fade from the lawn. We sit near silence, our feet soaked. Heat hangs onto the night like fever sweat in a blanket, and stars take place in the waning familiar. It’s not that there’s nothing to say, we just know better by now. Tongues honed on imagined accusation, we hum instead, feeling blindly for the moment harmony settles into…