Our Spring 2015 Issue features poetry by Ron Androla, Michael Bove, Michael Estabrook, Shana Genre, Gerard Grealish, Gerald Locklin, Donna J. Long, Jefferson Navicky, normal, Suzanne Osborne, Martin Ott, Mike Pulley, Jennifer Raha, Larry Schug, Roger Bernard Smith andSandy Weisman. The issue features artwork from Andrew Abbott, Wayne Atherton and Michael De Brito, reviews by Leigh Donaldson, Andrew Purcell and Mark Schorr and an interview with Gerald Locklin by Kevin Sweeney.
Poetry Excerpts from this Issue
Uncle Jack
by Mike Pulley You died twice, appropriately, Since you lived two lives in one, A childhood future-enfolded, a kid embedded In age-spot skin. The
Aubade
by Sandy Weisman I get up to row on the river. My scull glides to the gloomy edge of the water thick with spent lilies. A great blue heron
The Gravel Diaries
by Martin Ott The pen scratches a long-ago itch. A one-eared dog brays at a coyote invading his street. The delivery truck coughs too close for
Spring Thaw
by Mike Bove Side streets roil with rough slush, diminutive whitecaps loll at the foot of driveways, mailboxes wear melting crowns and bow low
There is a Rumor That During Construction of one of Portland’s Prominent Thoroughfares in the 1850s, Some Workers Died in a Freak Accident and the Road was Built Atop Their Bodies
by Mike Bove The men buried beneath Commercial Street are hardly resting. They died where they worked, stayed where they fell, and rolled only
Twenty Years On
by Suzanne Osborne Is dead acute — the first gasp of loss and relief when your jagged presence was torn from my life? Or is it chronic — the long
Call Me Ish . . . kabibble
by Suzanne Osborne Yeah, never really did the whale hunt thing. Mind you, I have had some strange bedfellows, and I know a shipwreck when I swim
El Rio del Oso
by Larry Schug What is the name of rain when it fails to fall from a cloud What do you call a river no water flowing within its banks having
Escarpment Trail
by Gerard Grealish Escarpment Trail for Brenna Had I not forgotten exactly what it meant we would have hiked a different course back the same we
Play Under Review
by Gerard Grealish With the clock running down the guard drove to the basket. Before the ref ’s whistle stopped shrieking Foul! my brother
there I was on the bench with a contraption
by Roger Bernard Smith you’ve heard this story a dozen times her arms above her head elbows at her side a trick with her backside tucked into the
she ran
by Roger Bernard Smith she ran a foam gun in the modular home plant friday nights we jitterbugged at gleason’s on forest ave before they
Plum Dandy
by Jennifer Raha Not intrinsically but through misplaced items — a lost scarf, a necklace, a turquoise bracelet. Nothing substantive. She no
Ruse
by Jennifer Raha Like the first Ferris wheel, he pulled me up, looped me like unspooled thread. Like rope. Apothecary, roulette muse. Azure
Delightful
by Shana Genre Sky dark — stars penetrating the black. You meet me out back, your hand soft and damp with sweat; my belly sparks at the tender
Drinking On Our Couch
by Ron Androla Drinking On Our Couch The Television Plays You are a pain in my brain. Wine from eastern Australia Is possible Merlot piss From
Poetry Is Always About Life
by Ron Androla Music is always about life. Painting, Novels, the best films armed with Magic, fur spoons, sculptures of The wind. Is that the
Story of the Modern Man after the Accident that is now His Life
by Jefferson Navicky I’ve cussed myself into a concussion, and I can no longer speak, only write the dumbest words, like ‘frog” and “cup” and
His Life as a Librarian
by Jefferson Navicky He worked as a young man in the medallions collection of the National Library, and published scholarly articles on
King Arthur Died in AD 538
by Michael Estabrook Things are about the same here, same as always, snowy out another boring lunch. Did you know that King Arthur (of the Round
Latina
by Michael Estabrook On the beach he surreptitiously snaps sultry photos of a long-haired Latina stretched out on a blanket sipping a cool
Who the hell greenlighted it?
by Gerald Locklin Kim Jung Un III, Ruler of North Korea, Might have shown a little leniency To the cyber-circuits of SONY If he hadn’t found The
Nothing Special Anymore
by Gerald Locklin Toad had always assumed He would one day make A return trip to Cuba, Where he’d enjoyed A Hemingway Symposium In the summer of
How It Began
by Donna J. Long His proposal was unexpected. I leapt delighted — yes — into his arms, eager for pleasure legal & tender. Shopping for a
The Body as Glass House
by Donna J. Long A window by day hides what’s inside, like a mirror reveals only an exterior. Architecture teaches me to be able to look within
The Departure
by Donna J. Long The Departure Tulum, Mexico The market square is shuttered, empty but for the dogs standing around, barely glancing at us as we
Adam and the Serpent
by Donna J. Long So you were born short, stout, wingless, someone for whom fight or flight was canceled by a genetic cog whose wheel was yet to
the day you were born, no one died,
by normal the telephone book of history opened & closed & SLAMMED SLAMMED SLAMMED you were one up in a world of diminishing returns &
the thing is, you see
by normal god has big eyes & he puts them in the mouths of little children & you can do what you will with a child, but one way or
quoting silence
by normal “where there are humans you’ll find flies, and buddhas” — issa i was fresh from the street i
legacy
by normal here & there i’d see his poetry he’d probably seen mine in the same places occasionally i’d read a piece i don’t know if he’d read
Erotica & Admissions
by Ron Androla You are Emily, the lovely Emily, Erie newscaster, soft-light Emily. Emily’s nipples taste Like buttery sandalwood Smoke woven
remembering sean
by normal sean o’neill, eugene’s son passed the syringe over to me “i come from an old line of fuckups,” he said “maybe this is the year i follow
From Gloat to Goat
by Gerald Locklin His first time back to Plant-watering duties Subbing for his wife While she spent the days Babysitting their
Interview
Gerald Locklin Interview
conducted by Kevin Sweeney via e-mail, March 2015 Gerald Locklin is a small press legend whom Charles Bukowski once called “one of the great
Reviews
Citizen: An American Lyric
by Claudia Rankine, Graywolf Press, 2014, 169 pages, paper, ISBN: 978-1-55597-690-3 Buy the Book It is the late 1970s. Our family has recently
Gabriel: A Poem
by Edward Hirsch, Knopf Doubleday, 2014, 96 pp, hardcover and paperback, ISBN: 978-0-385-35373-1 (hardcover) and 978-0-8041-7287-5 (paperback)
No Girls No Telephones
Brittany Cavallaro and Rebecca Hazelton, Black Lawrence Press, 2014, 28 pages, paper, $8.95, ISBN: 978-1-62557-999-7 Buy this Book Probably the
Poet Biographies
Sandy Weisman
is a poet and visual artist. Her poetry has appeared in Off The Coast, the Aurorean, and Muddy River Review among other journals. She owns 26
Larry Schug
has retired after a life of various kinds of physical labor. He has published 7 books of poems with At Gloaming from North Star Press being the
Jennifer Raha
earned an MFA in 2013 from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro where she was a Fred Chappell Fellow. She has published poems in
Mike Pulley
his work is published or forthcoming in Canary, ICON, Cold Mountain Review, South Carolina Review, and California Quarterly among others. He
Martin Ott
is a former U.S. Army interrogator and the author of six books of poetry and fiction including the forthcoming Underlays (University of Notre
Suzanne Osborne
after an early career in theater and a stint in academia studying comparative literature and teaching literature and German, she now lives in
normal
was raised in post – WWII Passaic, NJ and educated at the city library and Times Square, later reading his poems at the Café Rafio in
Jefferson Navicky
his work has appeared in Hobart, Birkensnake, Helen, Octopus Magazine and Smokelong Quarterly. He teaches English at Southern Maine
Donna J. Long
is professor of English at Fairmont State University in West Virginia and editor of Kestrel: A Journal of Literature and Art. Her publications
Gerald Locklin
is a small press legend whom Charles Bukowski once called “one of the great undiscovered talents of our time.” He is the author of more than 150
Gerard Grealish
was the founder of the Mulberry Poets & Writers Association and chaired the editorial board for the anthology Palpable Clock: 25 Years of
Shana Genre
teaches English and creative writing in Portland, Maine and advises the Deering High School literary magazine Breccia. She studied English at
Michael Estabrook
is a recently retired baby boomer child-of-the-sixties freed after working 40 years for “The Man” and sometimes “The Woman.” No more useless
Ron Androla
is a poet living in Erie, PA with his wife Ann.
Michael Bove
Artist Biographies
Reviewer and Interviewer Biographies
Kevin Sweeney
is chair of the English department at Southern Maine Community College and has published poems in a number of journals. He has two books from
Mark Schorr
serves as Director Emeritus of the Robert Frost Foundation and teaches at Cambridge College in Lawrence, Massachusetts. His latest book is
Andrew Purcell
his work has appeared in The Adirondack Review, Birdfeast, The Balitmore Review, NightBlock, and Weave Magazine, among others. He received his
Leigh Donaldson
his writing has appeared in publications such as The Montreal Review, Sojourners Magazine, Gastronomica, Art Times Journal, American Songwriter