Three Sides of tehe Fence |
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Lonely
Painting by Monica Barrameda |
Natalie Parker |
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The
Price You Pay by Clayton Beach |
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The
Tale of the Queen of Endor by Clayton Beach |
All three sides of the fence dance red in the shadows and sun, and the relief of green is beautiful in the center of the backyard, creating an instant resemblance to the colors of Christmas time. Yet, the grass is fake, implanted by my uncle Ruben when he owned Forever Lawn. Of synthetic makeup, eternally the same shade unless the sun fades it otherwise, the grass is probably the same plastic fiber that some fake Christmas trees are made of. Never dying. There are the scattered pots with plants sprouted with anxious arms skyward, or earth un-tempted by the sun, unyielding to the air, sitting still and ancient inside clay molds. Only a few flowers gently wave their petal crowns to me this season. The queen, the rose, an enduring ancestor of timeless beauty, owns parched and fading skeins of color, like she might have once been dipped in the offered blushes of a paling dusk, or baptized with a rich wine by careful fingertips. A pair of birds continue their electric warble, like static jumping, their legs like fearless twine, traveling within the safe and crooked bones of the tree. Their feathers mingle with the dusty mouse-field heat, jesting with the yellow boughs, reminding me that they are ageless to themselves. Well above me, in incomplete phrases, I can faintly hear the fork scrape the dish, the cry of a trust-wounded child, the haunted sounds of crows, a composition of neighbors: laughter and carnal reactions, groaning pavement beneath a wheel, the din of industrial lions, tired of the prowl, and somewhere, a cricket is chanting. I meditate on this and see that the shadows have moved. Like dark planets lost in circles, the shadows cast by the array of plants orbit faithfully around each other. I watch the ants scrawl little pathways to a future. Pin pricks of light glow on chosen surfaces, like the over-grown palm with leaves half mast, which has charmed its roots out of the wooden planks caging the soil in. The flies propel themselves noisily, subsequently being everyone’s business and being the carriers of everyone’s business. The canal makes minute comments on its journey, suggesting a land elsewhere when I close my eyes on the evening’s last burning blush. |
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Wintersong
by Clayton Beach |
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Mad
Dogs Bite by Janet Berend |
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Desert
Firefly by Taen Bounthapanya Third Place Winner, Poetry |
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Virtual
Reality by Taen Bounthapanya |
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Early
morning staring at an ugly fountain
by Breelyn Burns |
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Ten
Year Old Militia by Breelyn Burns Editor's Choice Award, Poetry |
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Arrogance
Unplugged by Rachel Busnardo |
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Goodbye
My Best Friend by Rachel Busnardo |
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At
a Small-Town Club by Jessica Conaway |
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Red
Stiletto Heels by Jessica Conaway |
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Naked
and Perfect T.C. Cook Second Place Winner, Poetry |
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Too
Far by T.C. Cook |
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Someday by Jermane Cooper |
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The
Girl Who Wrote This Stands at 5’ 2” (on a Good Day) by Shayna Coplan |
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Pontificating
Drunks by Dennis Dorsey |
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The
Symptom by Dennis Dorsey |
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Saturday
Night Pick-Up by Tanya Duer |
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Lost
in a Moment by Jamie Dykstra |
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Denizens
of Brilliance by Holland Elder |
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Between
His Futon and the Bedroom Wall
by Rachel Jones |
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Getting
Lost in National City Trying to Find Acapulco by Rachel Jones Angelo Carli Poetry Prize |
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Having
to Hide by Rachel Jones |
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I Used To Take My Anger Out On Plants by Rachel Jones | |||
The
Piano by Rachel Jones |
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Words
Like Clay by Rachel Jones |
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Begetting
Tragedy by Chris Joy |
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My
First Last by Chris Joy |
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There's
No Problem Officer by Brittney Krier |
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Ernest
Hemingway (My Cat): A Villanelle by Melanie Maheu |
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The
Small Beauties of Marriage by Melanie Maheu |
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Do
The Punks Still Raise Their High Pumping Fists in the Air? by Brendan Mitchell |
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Love
by Natalie Parker |
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Watching
TV While Having Sex by Jessee Pugliese |
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partner by Ruth Rice |
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Blood by Rachelle Shull |
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Fall by Jacob Triffo |
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Time
Served by Matt Tweedie |
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Romance
to Reality by Aga-Marie Wehrly |
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Solicitude by Matt Whitney |
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Why
We Write by Karen Wooton |