Prose, Poetry, and Art since 1956
I. Mendocino headlands, 6:20 a.m. Muffled grey skies, finger-chilling breeze, salinity infusing nostrils and eyes. The rhythmic whoosh and sigh of waves engulfing, abandoning, then reclaiming landfall with the fervency of ambivalent lovers. We have one hour before the minus tide recovers a sister-world of beings left gasping in dry oxygen. My girlfriend Terry leads the way along gravelly path, nimbly stepping alongside scruffy cliff sides….
Aubade from Voyager 1 Houston i am grazing inside the deep field only with the telescopes will you observe my lilting all i hear for now are symphonies the stars and tiny sonatas so in a few ways i am Kepler in a few ways i…
The ferryman watched the two men waiting for the boat. One was in a policie uniform, the other was not, but that was all the ferryman could see. He wouldn’t know more until he could read the sign on the riverbank wall that said Výtoň. The ferryman, who called himself Jan, pulled back on the throttle as the boat passed beneath Vyšehrad Bridge. The dark…
A Full Recounting of Flowers, That is, Remembering a Time When I Nearly Transformed What Really Happened Into Myth Back when he climbed into my bed, I was fourteen. In a whisper he claimed, “Love between men is the purest form, when you stop and think about it.” When he stopped kissing my mouth, I heard a gasp—. Then my thoughts returned like a snow-shower…
She had broken her own rule and opened the quarter bottle of brandy at four instead of six, when the crows noisily circled their homes.