Issue

Some Days Are Grimmer Than the Rest

for my son, Wade (1963-1993)

William John Watkins

William John Watkins was a member of the founding faculty at Brookdale Community College in New Jersey from which he recently retired. He has published more than 500 poems in such magazines as Rhino, South Carolina Review, Hellas, and Commonweal. His sonnet, “Wife of My Youth, Look Back, Look Back”, won the 1994 Hellas Award, and his poem, “We Die as Angels and Come Back as Men” won the 2002 Rhysling Award. His short story, “Beggar in the Living Room”, was a Nebula Award finalist.

Driving Home from the Retirement Party

Tom Noe

Tom Noe is a writer and editor living in South Bend, Indiana. His most recent project was the text of a song cycle on the life of Marie Curie, staged in Virginia in February, 2009. He's currently working on a new play and, of course, more poetry.

Prayer for the Virtuous Pagans

My Lord, let me begin with David Miller
whose eldest son is now a pillar
of your temple and your priest,
whose younger sons are struggling with the Beast.
Let David behold your face.

And Lord I pray for my own father,
pray too for my little brother,
my sisters and my mother
who lack your sacramental grace.
May all my heathen kin behold your face.

Hunting on Thanksgiving

Timothy Murphy

Timothy Murphy hunts and farms in the Dakotas.

Fault

We glide into the room to sit
In high-backed chairs and slide the plate
Across a line. We shift a bit

To face our food, lurch, hesitate,
Suspended at a table where
Fixed, unconvenable we wait.

Inseparable, this weight we bear
Yet stubbornly we subdivide,
Recalculate the other’s share

Tim Kidwell

Tim Kidwell lives in St. Louis where he works as a writer, actor and airline customer service agent. His poetry has appeared in Big Muggy and Eads Bridge and his article, “At the End of the Day,” appeared last summer in the Wall Street Journal.