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Vol. 3, No. 2 Contents

Sofia and Jules  by GWYN HENRY

2 June 2003
fiction, short story

A crucifix hangs beside the travel poster, which shows snow-capped Alps in Switzerland. Both are artifacts left by the room's previous tenant. A third artifact is newer, the silver-framed photograph of Jules's mother. She smiles beside the dying Jesus. This wall is the first thing I see when I awake.

Houses All My Life  by JAMES F. WARD

2 June 2003
fiction, flash fiction

I nod off? Listen. Call it a bell though it buzzes. More crackle than buzz. All my life, houses. Houses have bells. Apartments buzzers. Townhouse Georgia calls it. Shithouse. Listen.

Written on the Moon  by JULIAN BERNICK

2 June 2003
poetry, rhyme

Congress met with the cops and the crooks,

appointing committees to investigate.

Me was outside in the adjective rain,

verbing and verbing about some proper noun.

After the Bomb  by HANNAH CRAIG

2 June 2003
poetry

no more scritch-scratch, black bodies

through grout. No more

crumb-hunters, curry spice tracked…

Tress  by HANNAH CRAIG

2 June 2003
poetry

Through gold, a comb shimmers. Not the red

cock-comb of sureness, but here, a hen-comb,

a toothed darling.

The Sacrifice  by MARK DECARTERET

2 June 2003
poetry

Your son's hair wet with twilight,

his mouth a wound that won't heal.

While the Ants Sleep  by MARK DECARTERET

2 June 2003
poetry

A steaming bowl of spring:

so lazy the view…

Left Behind  by MELANIE FAITH

2 June 2003
poetry

Today I took your lone sweater from the shelf

where once the commingling of yours and mine

found perfect shelter in our nested winter clothes.

Nestling my nose in the folded sleeves…

Strawberry: Weekend Wife  by MELANIE FAITH

2 June 2003
poetry

Like shampoo, the scarf smells strawberry,

her hair is her shampoo smell, the shade

of strawberries in the sun.

Summer Kitchen  by MELANIE FAITH

2 June 2003
poetry

Before there were appliances that whirr,

this place was the epicenter of summer sweets

made of tart fruits no one bakes anymore,

rhubarb and raspberry pies left to cool…

Deus ex Machina  by MEGAN M. GARR

2 June 2003
poetry

I am witness to the architecture

of her breath, her


sleeping. She is a fine

quiet thing until the morning comes.

Timeline, 1977  by SHELLY REED

2 June 2003
poetry, catalog

Woznik ran the corner grocery until he saw a roach,

aisle three, between Life and Froot Loops, and went mad.

He died that year. Starved himself to death.

For K Down Under  by ANTHONY ROBINSON

2 June 2003
poetry

Did not slip toward your largess, Brown

Hair. Something baking smells good,

And the edge! Forsaken, some say,

The pair of tattered sneakers begs…

Poem Beginning with a Line from David Shapiro  by ANTHONY ROBINSON

2 June 2003
poetry

I never gave up my love of what I already loved:

The warm white towel, the way a woman

Makes me mad with a kind quiet burning,

The early forgotten poems of my youth…

Nerve  by CHERYL SNELL

2 June 2003
poetry

Fireworks threatened to take the top off. Wet palms

twitched under eruptions of happiness.


Shoes by the door piled up like pups…

Studio Visit  by CHERYL SNELL

2 June 2003
poetry

She baked a meatloaf. He told stories

that hurt her ears: debauched

Mexican nights. Peyote, hallucinations,

drowning in another woman's arms.

A Lapse  by CAROLINE WILKINSON

2 June 2003
poetry, prose poem

While being converted into a human dwelling, this greenhouse hid its soul from the carpenters. Windows are everywhere. The building's heavy lids…

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