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Vol. 5, No. 4 Contents

The Substitute  by FRANÇOIS COPPÉE

1 February 2006
fiction, short story, classic, translation

He was scarcely ten years old when he was arrested for the first time for vagabondage.

To 42opus Editors on August 27, 2005  by TONY EVANS

2 December 2005
nonfiction, cover letter

My nickname at school is Tony the All-Night Pony. When I read a poem that I like I will write it down in one of my black leather journals.

The Four Ages of Poetry  by THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK

8 February 2006
nonfiction, classic, essay, poetic theory

Poetry, like the world, may be said to have four ages, but in a different order: the first age of poetry being the age of iron; the second, of gold; the third, of silver; and the fourth, of brass.

Temporal Happiness from Fruits of Solitude  by WILLIAM PENN

24 February 2006
nonfiction, classic

Too few know when they have Enough; and fewer know how to employ it.

The Wave Theory of Light  by SIR WILLIAM THOMSON

16 December 2005
nonfiction, classic, science writing

Let observers observe the blue sky not only in winter when the earth is covered with snow, but in summer when it is covered with dark green foliage. This will help to unravel the complicated phenomena in question.

Just Beyond That  by AMANDA BLACK

16 January 2006
poetry, prose poem

This is eternal, this lack of skill and know-how, this devout, this impractical, this inoculated pink and golden dawn, one or two languages in bed, a desk, a bureau, a table, two or three chairs. I stayed awake. I stayed among…

Lost to Passion or Folly  by AMANDA BLACK

18 January 2006
poetry, prose poem

I woke up thinking there were beautiful people under the covers. I woke up thinking beauty had followed me home in the form of an economical soap. If only…

Charles Manson  by JASON BREDLE

9 January 2006
poetry

When I was a child, the government

tattooed my mother's blood type under


her left arm. Nuclear meltdown

was inevitable, they said. Soon, they would


flood my town to build a reservoir…

Thanksgiving Prayer Girl  by JASON BREDLE

In the big fun

disaster, I revisit every place


we loved one another and cry, I fall

asleep to the same song in the back of a Jeep

night after night…

Dark Matter  by BRUCE COVEY

25 January 2006
poetry

gravitino: Did I know her?

white dwarfs: boxes under the stairs

dragons: monopoles, domain walls, …banished

axion: I hear footsteps behind me

From Reveal  by BRUCE COVEY

27 January 2006
poetry

Pitch: The shy guys explode

Duration: Calculate important events to celebrate

Intensity: Dishes are broken. Loose bricks fall from buildings

Timbre: Source translation with peephole

Comb  by MARK CUNNINGHAM

25 February 2006
poetry

The first was a fish skeleton.

But you don't want

the top of your head


to dart and shift

without cease.

Mailbox  by MARK CUNNINGHAM

27 February 2006
poetry

You may already have won $10,000!

That's not what you'd hoped


to sift from passing traffic, no…

The Secret Lives of Our Fathers  by TONY EVANS

3 December 2005
poetry

He has been hit by a train, totaled his car five times,

Nearly starved to death due to malnutrition,

Has had malignant cancer three times, has one lung,

And almost drowned to death on several occasions.

Cadenza for the Production of a Love Poem  by CHAD FARIES

21 February 2006
poetry

If I brush your cheek

with this finger

you'll still not know

the real poems I

had stashed for you

in that box.

Jenny Kiss'd Me  by JAMES HENRY LEIGH HUNT

12 December 2005
poetry, classic, light verse, rhyme

Jenny kiss'd me when we met,

   Jumping from the chair she sat in;

Time, you thief, who love to get

   Sweets into your list, put that in!

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love  by CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE

14 February 2006
poetry, classic, love poem, rhyme

Come live with me and be my Love…

Moment  by LAURA MCCULLOUGH

28 December 2005
poetry, elegy, editors' select

There's a moment in every dog's life

when it surrenders its dogginess


to a greater good…

The Holy Waters of Penzance  by SAM PEREIRA

7 December 2005
poetry

One weekend in June, we rushed

The shore, hoping

For a mass baptism, one

Might guess. We wore nothing,

And she carried the saddest look

Of anyone in that crowd.

You Have Made a Career of Not Listening  by KIKI PETROSINO

I have stood beside you, saying this, as you reach into the cupboard for another stack of dry noodles. You eat them with the dead still on, with the sticky deadness still on…

Funeral Procession, Costa Rica  by DANIEL PINKERTON

11 February 2006
poetry

Heat forces everything

nearer, a gloved hand squeezing.

On one shoulder the mourners

carry their dead…

[The intolerable sound of starving] from She Writes a Ghost Story  by ERICH SCHWEIKHER

5 December 2005
poetry

You pull a name from the river, cradle

it to your breast. It is a twitching egg,

a pitcher of bees you wish to pour skyward.

Sonnet 116: Let me not to the marriage of true minds  by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

16 February 2006
poetry, classic, sonnet, rhyme

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds…

Sonnet 6: Then let not winter's ragged hand deface  by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

19 February 2006
poetry, classic, sonnet, rhyme

Then let not winter's ragged hand deface

In thee thy summer, ere thou be distill'd…

Inventory of My Room in the Morning  by SHONNA SKARDA

20 January 2006
poetry

The hem of the curtain hits

the windowsill like a riding whip.

To the finish line.

A Visit to the Underworld Can Permanently Alter Your Perspective on 'Restless Existence'  by SUSAN TICHY

22 January 2006
poetry

The job description reads, roughly, hooked on the bang-bang


To kill you first must obfuscate, say

"Ammo more expensive than a gun"


"Let's buy a bullet! Who's got bread?"

Light Blew Open the Hutch & a Boy Saw It (Part 5)  by JOSHUA MARIE WILKINSON

19 December 2005
poetry, prose poem

A bagful of nickels in exchange for a bagful of black detergent that smelled of sliced oranges. They even shook on it.

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