Red Fox On Zaleski Trail,
2020
Bryant University
Red Fox On Zaleski Trail, Deborah Fleming
Bryant Literary Review
Vinton County, Ohio
On the trail through hillsides
twice shorn of woodlands
Borders,
2020
Bryant University
Borders, Mary Makofske
Bryant Literary Review
Drawn in ink or blood,
they unspool from history
to split mountains and valleys,
meander in rivers that twist
Rattlesnake Religion,
2020
Bryant University
Rattlesnake Religion, Sarah Morgan
Bryant Literary Review
We tried to trap rabbits
lit ants on fire with matchsticks
Ode To A Lobster,
2020
Bryant University
Ode To A Lobster, Joshua Gage
Bryant Literary Review
Here, between thick-cut filets
and a sheet of crushed ice
bearing slabs of cod and salmon,
a tank of frothing water
and a lone lobster.
The Ventriloquist Toasts Her Teddies,
2020
Bryant University
The Ventriloquist Toasts Her Teddies, Rikki Santer
Bryant Literary Review
Here’s to my set-up like so many before me—
To the vice grip of acne maps & stammering
Chemo,
2020
Bryant University
Chemo, Carolyn Adams
Bryant Literary Review
As you turn to the oncoming magic,
what subsumes?
Because everything can’t stay
at the surface, what is forgotten?
Silent Elegy,
2020
Bryant University
Silent Elegy, Anna Leigh Morrow
Bryant Literary Review
What I want to say is
there are no words.
The Missing You settles beneath my ribs like
After Blake’S Songs Of Innocence And Experience,
2020
Bryant University
After Blake’S Songs Of Innocence And Experience, William Derge
Bryant Literary Review
(on a work of art by Lisa Sheirer entitled Water Stories – Lilypons 2)
I.
Things were pretty clear then,
the pencil thin lines of reeds, curved like the hairs on a stevedore’s arm,
the sculptured reflections of clouds,
scabbing bark of sycamores or
rust scars on seasoned machinery,
Mud Minor Mass,
2020
Bryant University
Mud Minor Mass, Kevin Walker
Bryant Literary Review
Even Johann Sebastian Bach
had to fake it through the mirk
on merciless days,
Grief, Be My Coverlet,
2020
Bryant University
Charcoal Nude,
2020
Bryant University
Charcoal Nude, John Sibley Williams
Bryant Literary Review
Roughed-up: edges indistinct: body
softly black & blending with all this white
If The Stars Had Voices,
2020
Bryant University
If The Stars Had Voices, Buff Whitman-Bradley
Bryant Literary Review
If the stars had voices
They would surely sound
Like cricket song
Brutality,
2020
Bryant University
Brutality, Laurie Lessen Reiche
Bryant Literary Review
I.
There is something I want to say about brutality.
It comes out the lips of the hateful
mother, the beautiful mother.
My Father’S Loaves And Fishes,
2020
Bryant University
My Father’S Loaves And Fishes, Lennie Hay
Bryant Literary Review
In his soft throaty voice he speaks of rice—
washing and rinsing hard kernels,
how hands knock them on the side of a pot
until water runs clear. How it will rise
When Death Comes,
2020
Bryant University
When Death Comes, Carol Tyx
Bryant Literary Review
after Mary Oliver
When death comes
like the dentist,
sticking her hand
into your mouth,
Gunn Hill,
2020
Bryant University
Gunn Hill, Pat Daneman
Bryant Literary Review
Given time, a place becomes a thing
small enough to hold in memory’s grip,
strong enough to struggle free. Frightened
When I Think About The Funeral, I Find I Can Taste The Mints,
2020
Bryant University
When I Think About The Funeral, I Find I Can Taste The Mints, Nichole Page
Bryant Literary Review
I can hear the crinkle of the wrapper, the sniffling and speeches
My fingers push it from the plastic casing giving me something to do
Fragments Of Mother,
2020
Bryant University
Fragments Of Mother, Sheree La Puma
Bryant Literary Review
daughter, i rock your empty
cradle & ask myself,
how long will we
make war?
Could We Be Coyotes,
2020
Bryant University
Could We Be Coyotes, George Longenecker
Bryant Literary Review
who howl all night behind the house,
whose ancestors mated with wolves?
Our Tiny Somewhere,
2020
Bryant University
Our Tiny Somewhere, Martina Nicholson
Bryant Literary Review
a description of Earth from Maria Popova
The speck in the last
Voyager photograph
was Earth,
