Ande Enochsson

Steams

green-blue pines

smell of wet bark

oxidised iron in the soil 

frost stiffened them

came from ceilings

abandoned barleycorn fields

coloured dew in woodland junctions

hoarfrost biting the outer skin

smell of frozen steam in his nose

the effervescing humours

reservoir entrances frozen over

icy turmoil waiting for spring

waterlogged trees dialogue

in low key frequency

Ande Enochsson (b.1979) lives in Uppsala, Sweden. He writes short stories and poetry. Some of his pieces have been published in, for instance, Fosebook and Smokestack. Ande is an editor of Rufous Salon and Rufous Press.

Kevin Ridgeway

One-Eyed Cat

our little bastard,

he steals pillows

and hearts

his large mass

of fat floats

with his breaths

on my cheekbones

his snores and

purring wheezes keep us

awake at night,

his one eye

glowing in the

darkness

of television snow

Kevin Ridgeway is a writer from Southern California. Recent work has appeared in Underground Voices, Stanley the Whale and Circus of the Damned. Mr. Ridgeway's chapbook Burn Through Today is forthcoming from Flutter Press.  

Jenny Enochsson

Alder

beyond wet stubble-field

is the woodland pub

with rusty fog oiled window hinges

man with teeth like grains of maize

carries tin pail

with lukewarm raspberry juice

to the half blind heron

by the riverbank

tree silhouettes like celtic cheek bones 

and jawlines visible when leaves fall

stage filled with bursting acorns

drumhead elastic like eyelids

flute rising over sleeping algae

below flight of swans

dancing selenite-white kid

with branch horns

pub guests drinking ale

or raspberry wine with seed crackle

in green venetian glass cups

cat with frosty savannah gaze

walks across a hill

distant drum cloud light

alder cones in his hair

sulphite steam round leg stalks

Jenny Enochsson (b. 1976) lives in Uppsala, Sweden. She writes short stories and poetry in her native language Swedish and in English. Some of her pieces have been published in literary magazines and in other publications. Jenny is an editor of Rufous Salon.

Helen Vitoria

How Sylvia hurts herself

on a crosstown bus

with the bright dart shimmer

of some strangers eyes

locking into hers

a six foot high hue

of someone who looks like

someone she used to know

she bites into every bit

of muted pain that remains

far away, dead and

bare as winter

Helen Vitoria’s work can be found in many online and print journals: elimae, PANK, FRIGG Magazine, Dark Sky Magazine and others. She is the author of four chapbooks and a full length poetry collection. Her poems have been nominated for Best New Poets & the Pushcart Prize. She is the Founding Editor & Editor in Chief of THRUSH Poetry Journal & THRUSH Press. Find her here: LEXIS

Nancy Scott

The Old Woman at the End of the Block

I was running out of time
so I decided to pay a visit
to the 103-year-old woman
who lived at the end of the block.
With measuring cup in hand,
I rang the doorbell, and asked,
“Could you spare a year or two?”
She invited me in for tea
and, while pouring Oolong
into chipped porcelain, she said,
“I could give up 1982.
It wasn’t a good year for me.”
She hesitated.
“No, I’ll give you 1956 instead,
a stellar year. You look as if
you could use some luck.”
We were chatting about
the weather and such, when
she leaned over and whispered,
“If you need more time,
come see me again,
because after I’m dead,
what good is time then.”
I thanked her profusely,
and, with cup filled to the brim,
I took my sweet time home.

Nancy Scott is an artist and author of five books of poetry.
She is also managing editor of U.S.1 Worksheets, the journal
of the U.S.1 Poets' Cooperative in Central New Jersey.
More information and a gallery of her collages can be found
at www.nancyscott.net.

Heather Brager

apertures.

if you remember that day,

the characters and unwritten script

the end of august in rapidly spliced frames

holding keys in my mouth

pulling strands from my neck and

wrapping my hair in the melting sunlight

my eyes burned from mincing garlic and

you smelled like vanilla and leather

Heather Brager is a professional multi-tasker, mother and skilled procrastinator.  Her writing and drawings have been published in a variety of online and print publications.  She currently resides in SW Montana with her two little boys and partner in crime, writer A.g. Synclair, with whom she co-edits The Montucky Review.

Danuta E. Kosk-Kosicka

Echo—Testing My Heart

I saw gutted buildings. Red River came

above its flood stage, up to twenty-six

fire-tinted feet. I watched my heart beat,

pump blood on the computer screen. My blood

was blue, my blood was red. The surges came

strikingly fast. A spilling lightning stormed

through the valves, opening, closing them.

The mitral valve, untamed galloping horse.                                

The aortic, swishing like a ghost train.                                       

When those two sounds were lost, a gulping frog—

tricuspid valve I heard. Waves, spikes, walls, gates.

Dangers lurking in the sounds, in the waves.

They are over, both news and test. The echo

of valves and fires in red rivers stays.


Danuta E. Kosk-Kosicka resides in Maryland, USA. Her poems, written either in English or Polish, have been published in numerous literary journals and anthologies in the USA, Ireland, and Poland. She is the translator for two bilingual poetry books by Lidia Kosk: niedosyt / reshapings and Słodka woda, słona woda/ Sweet Water, Salt Water. Danuta is an editor of Loch Raven Review.

A.g. Synclair

Encroachment

I know what she's thinking.

Damn the bleating of pigs

the deafening roar of baby lions

in the grand scheme

it means nothing.

They long for a virtual mother.

A.g. Synclair is the editor and publisher of The Montucky Review, a journal of poetry & prose. He doesn't have an MFA in anything but still manages to publish regularly. He lives, writes, and collaborates in southwestern Montana with his significant other, the artist and poet Heather Brager.