jacquelyn shah ~ baffling

Baffling As a would-be baffler, I’m engaged in creating something fool-proof. But there’s such a wide variety of fools that I don’t know how to baffle them all. Fools come in many stripes and furs, demonstrate a myriad of facets, advocate a host of harebrained actions, override some basic setups, and dare to wreck whatever’s […]

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3 JAZZ POEMS ~ CONNIE JOHNSON

Unanswered Prayers You didn’t seem to mind the unanswered prayers of your bebop aloneless. I brought you liquor and smokes, a dwelling place of vinyl: Clifford Brown, Art Blakey and the Bird! Your eyes drifted to carefully coiffed girls in the pew and their angularity of vision. I held you blameless, but don’t think that […]

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Matt Thomas ~ COW CREEK

Cow Creek What we called a crick,no wider than a standing leapone side to the other,a rat snake stretched in pasture sun,kinks shear as paper cuts wherethe water fought to go straight.We flipped cow pattieswith pocket knivesfor worms that writhedon hooks bouncedwith a neat underhandfrom grass into the waterupstream from a bend, floatedto where we […]

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5 POEMS ~ DIANE WEBSTER

FEATHER LIGHT A feather lieslighton its reflectionon the pond;conjoined twinsfloatingin unison. ~ ROYAL FOREST On forest meadowautumn leavesfallenlike royal subjectsbowingbefore kingand queen. ~ DESCENDING VERTIGO Fog and pondconsumedescendingfence postsin a silentfloodof grayvertigo. ~ CLOVER RHYTHM Patrons at a concert —clover heads bobin rhythm with the musicvibrating from the radiountil the song ends…They continuein mute appreciationof […]

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