Autumn 2024
The Yule Banshee
“The jack-o-lanterns haven’t spread up as far as Lakemoore, not yet at least. And the way was clear through Dreary Drive, thank the All Father.” The mail courier leans on…
Poems from Flares and Fathoms
The review of Flares and Fathoms, from which the following poems are taken, appeared in the previous issue. Blizzard: Brooklyn View A man shovels in a parking lotfor a car…
The Wonderful Wound in the Back of My Head
or How Eating the Cheese Dribbling from My Skull Explains the Universe in Its Entirety I have this wound in the back of my head (a drinking injury—more on that…
to wait as if waiting for the rising moon
I canter across the field, legs pumping, the awkward rhythm extending and extending, my calves burning, throat catching, until the rush floods in and it is her running. Lilja’s ears,…
Susan Gordon: Four Poems
The Regiment That morning they’d bent to don their black-soled bootsafter hours through which none of them had slept.Bending to tie them, not one thought to refusethe fate that dogged…
Strong Songs of the Dead
Three chapters from Th. Metzger’s new book DOWN IN THE FLOOD We sing for the dead and we sing with the dead. Untrained, unamplified, unrestrained, our voices are raucous and…
Oh Gee, for the Time Being
Translator’s note. The Japanese title of this chapter is Uji. 有 u means “to have” or “there is” — thusit is often understood as Being. 時 ji means a moment…
Albatros
Esther knew that she should be preparing for a blackout. She should be checking her care gear and the deadbolts. She should place the gun where she could reach it,…
Airborne
Sheila stood outside the Von Krambourg Funeral Home in Lunette, New Jersey in her carefully selected funeral clothes: a fragile navy-blue rayon crepe Wiener Werkstatte print tunic with a wide peplum…
The Tale of Peter Magus
“Run along,” Mother said. “And don’t get into any trouble.” All four did. But this is the tale of Peter Magus. Mother rabbit was talking to her children: Poisonmaker, Stickpin,…
Poems from “Sappho Is Dead”
the birds praise Joan of Arc at Domrémy the pigeons singwith a do, and a re, and a mi— at Vaucouleurs all in a ringthe hens refuse to lay— the…
Reviews: K. Smith, “Abuptly Dogen”; S. Pious, “Sappho is Dead”; L. Lampert-Weissig, “Instrument of Memory’; T. Metzger, “Strong Songs of the Dead”
Kidder Smith, Abruptly Dogen, Punctum Books 2024. Zen books can be quite annoying. They usually purvey spiritual non sequiturs with a sanctimonious undertone of “if you were as enlightened as…