Wednesday 15 February 2012

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.  

Saturday 11 February 2012

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.

Wednesday 8 February 2012

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

Sunday 5 February 2012

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.

Friday 3 February 2012

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.

Thursday 2 February 2012

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 SĹ‚odka woda, sĹ‚ona woda/ Sweet Water, Salt Water. Danuta is an editor of Loch Raven Review.

Wednesday 1 February 2012

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.