Montage
Two Poems: narcissus; stalk the open ring
narcissus not step twice into notstep back from stream.its nets are storm blackened, Narcissus’ flower is a cut out.it has shut in cold,skeining back into the bud echo and,outbreath. he skeins back the threadthe blind buds are always. step (not-step)back then. step (not-step)back then, from the black river nets. stalk the open ring stalk the…
Read MoreTwo Poems: Skies Clearing over Portola Valley; A Note to the Neighbor on the Corner
Skies Clearing over Portola Valley Fog burning off gives wayto stretches of blue unadorned: an ideaof infinity startles and fades, a dropped pebblein a pond, ripples, nothing— how it feels that first timeyou make blood trickle from a quivering lip, eachdrop blotting the cirrus white of skin, spottinghis cotton tee, a stain which unlike innocencepales…
Read MoreWhich Finger for the Town?
“Isn’t it lovely?” the mother asked. She paused with her cocker spaniel on the edge of a barren hill overlooking the town. A cold, dry wind swept snow crystals from the ponderosas over the sunlit valley where the town lived, like a hail of pulverized diamonds. The town was famous for exporting raw logs, NHL…
Read MoreBypass Instructions
On a sunny early-August morning, I load my new chainsaw, the squeeze bottle of cherry-coloured oil, and the small pair of loppers into the red wheelbarrow. I pull on my sap-stained leather work gloves and adjust the visor that keeps sun and hair out of my eyes. I stand in front of my husband, arms…
Read MoreTwo Poems: Miss Missaukee, 1966; God’s Loneliness
Miss Missaukee, 1966 For talent, she sanga Cinderella song, her hair in a kerchief,homemade calico skirt. Later, in mascara, anothersort of costume, her eyes deep set wells beneathPatty Duke hair. She hugs the bouquet to her chestlike a child and her family fans out around her. Proudand stunned, sudden flash: her mother and father,brother, two…
Read MoreHaunted by Her Hometown: An Interview with Margo Orlando Littell
Margo Orlando Littell’s debut novel Each Vagabond by Name is steeped in its setting: a small coal-mining town much like the one where Littell lived until she was eighteen years old. The book opens with a band of young travelers who have arrived in the quiet town of Shelk, Pennsylvania, and are robbing homes in…
Read MorePicture Day
It’s starting to feel like winter. The fall leaves have been raked from lawns leaving behind tree skeletons stretching bare branches toward an icy blue sky. It’s too cold for what I’m wearing: a thin silk blouse I ironed this morning, and grey slacks with black flats. I usually don’t dress up like this, but…
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