Rookery At dusk, one by one, great blue herons come from all directions, swoop to the top of the tall pine across the river, wings...

Bob Dylan is America Bob Dylan is America. Carl Sandburg is America. Allen Ginsberg and Langston Hughes, Shel Silverstein and Willie...

Finally finished “The Origin of the Work of Art,” which is not an essay but a confrontation: you have to be engaged with it at all times...

for Beth Copeland Yesterday, warring fog and sun unmoored her mountain. She has come to expect this dodge-and-feint of her mountain. One...

Carnival Goldfish Boy after Every Beginning by N. Taylor Collins We had the requisite pet parade, gerbils, hamsters, hermit crabs, moving...

MICHAEL CHANG (they/them) poets to feel alive. Their writing has been published or is forthcoming in The Minnesota Review, Yellow Medicine R

A Leading, 2 From blinding sunlight, we are rendered with love, like a sky painted with summoning music, generations of waves from...

All She Ever Wanted Was the light of astonishment— watching a white narcissus bulb secured in a pot on her old pine desk. It bloomed like...

Before Mother Married Father Scrambled eggs, bacon and toast, coffee steaming between them in the Red Robin Diner in Johnson City New...

Deviant After dropping acid, Danny danced all night by himself in the corner of the dining room. He was there when we went to bed and...

Dark That knock on the door---- Who? Why? Why me? Yes, I am a member. I pay Daily, weekly, yearly. I’ve done nothing wrong. I don’t sing...

The Need to Explain Before heading to the gym, my wife—unencumbered by her handbag— walks to the laundry slash mail room where a...

Earthly Places “And all that I knew is moving away from me.” -Joanna Newsom The sign on the office door reads Gone where the clock really...

i checked the widow box today another milestone in the books like the restored antique car found languishing on a Georgia farm a tree...

By Stephen Scott Whitaker The Fire Eater Jose Hernandez Diaz Texas Review Press $16.95 The Fire Eater, Jose Hernandez Diaz’s debut...

Our Own Town I was remembering us the smooth and the rough the times we have had the love we have made in between the sonnets and haikus,...

Kangaroo Rain “Step outside and the air is a weight you bear.” –Catherine Pierce We used to play in an empty swimming pool, skin on...

How I Came to America “Credibility gap” and “rubbernecking”. My father loved the language of America, loved the lure of opportunity. He...

Moving from House to House We live in a sacramental universe; Every small act becomes an act to redeem us: A brocaded coat repaired and...

The garlic scent in my passenger seat is getting stronger. I’ll throw away the leftovers and see what replaces it first. I thought the...