WE’LL TAKE CARE OF EACH OTHER

by Thomas R. Smith

Everything is a little damaged now.

Even the things you buy new, like a book

or a chair. Long lines at the return counter.

The country is a little damaged too,

or maybe a lot. People’s ability

to speak honestly stunned by threat, even

churches preaching the gospel of force.

Best turn away from the gambling dens

of the pollsters, twist the radio knob

to cut off the loud voice in mid-sentence.

Walk down some quiet street in your town

that’s loved you. Trust the kindnesses received

and especially the kindnesses you’ve given.

That goodness can’t be voted out of your heart.

Thomas R. Smith’s recent books are a poetry collection Medicine Year (Paris Morning Publications) and a prose work Poetry on the Side of Nature: Writing the Nature Poem as an Act of Survival (Red Dragonfly Press). He lives in western Wisconsin near the Kinnickinnic River.

THE WRONG HOUSE

by Thomas R. Smith

dedicated to Ralph Yarl and Kaylin Gillis

“Wrong House” by Tala Madani (2014)

Say it’s the city, late evening, dark.
You’ve stopped to pick up your brothers,
thought you had the right address,
but now you’re unsure, seeing the pale
man the other side of the glass door.
Something in his hand, something shiny
in his trembling hand. Raises it,
a flash, the sound of glass
breaking, you breaking.

Say you’re in the country. It’s easy
to get lost on those dirt back roads.
Your car pulls into a driveway, but
the number is wrong. Turn back out.
From a nest of darkness
in the trees, bullets spit, one
catches you where you sit. Your
friends get you to a hospital, 
too late.  You’re gone.

Say you’re a country. Thought you knew
the Address, confident in your way
around the shining city. What brought you
here to the door of this horror movie?
Who armed the frightened old man,
the violent sociopath? Why has your
heart taken so much lead? Are you
wounded but alive, or dead? Why do you
keep showing up at the wrong house?

Thomas R. Smith is a poet, essayist, and teacher living in western Wisconsin. His most recent books are a poetry collection Medicine Year (Paris Morning Publications) and a prose work Poetry on the Side of Nature: Writing the Nature Poem as an Act of Survival (Red Dragonfly Press).

IF YOU SHOULD STUMBLE ACROSS ME IN THE BARREN WOODS

by Amna Alamir

“Barren Wood” by Mindy Newman

Hooded and lonesome, untie 

the shrouds and the clouds that 

walk among you and I will 

gently open inviting you in.

Reach out with tender curiosity 

your fingertips, feign a lasso out 

of heartstrings and I will share 

the taste of the ocean, the many 

travels I have bottled up and 

tossed at perturbed sailors.

Where they turned their backs on me: 

this is night country 

this isn’t right country 

in the blackness I am suffocating 

this isn’t my country. 

My body is changing 

has taken on your culture 

and become momentarily ill. 

There are parts of me 

I had to give up, I lost 

gave to you in exchange 

for your acceptance. 

I covered myself in barberries 

ginger root, cardamom. 

I am a rare sighting, now

beyond the star-shaped stars 

that float like lucid ribbons 

when it is time to die 

the earth shivers. 

 

Amna Alamir is a Kuwaiti writer who currently studies and resides in the UK. She is finishing up her MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia and is pursuing further research on silence, the female voice, and somatic practices. 

CREDO

by Catherine Wald






I believe in The Messiah.

Especially when the
soprano sings
Rejoice
great-
ly.

Rejoice isn’t a word
that is bandied
about much
these days,
which is
too bad.

On the other hand, I
don’t miss the
references to
sin, spitting
and smiters.

Here’s
my confession: I
love music more than
religion, more than God,
way more than country.

All the mighty chorales
of Paradise could only
play second fiddle to
a well-honed coloratura.

If Hell has the tunes, vocal
acrobatics and orchestration,
that’s where you’ll find me


Catherine Wald’s chapbook Distant, burned-out stars was published by Finishing Line Press in 2011. Poems have appeared in American Journal of Nursing, Buddhist Poetry Review, Chronogram, Dragonfly, Friends Journal, J Journal, Jewish Literary Journal, "Metropolitan Diary" (The New York Times), Minerva Rising, Quarterday Review, The Lyric and Westchester Review.  She is author of The Resilient Writer: Tales of Triumph and Rejection from 23 Top Authors (Persea 2004).

LAMENTATION

by David Radavich

Is Putin on the "Trump Train"? —Scott Stantis, Chicago Tribune, July 28, 2016.

For Donald

I am hearing the dirge
of my people.

The sound gets louder
and louder, like a train
approaching a station

which has been waiting
and waiting
as an eager slave.

Soon all the passengers
will board and slowly

the landscape will pass
by windows waving
at amber grain.

I stand at the crossing
with torn eyes.

I remember when
the country rose in wings
and did not hope
for engines

hard on
their dark way.

David Radavich's most recent poetry collections are The Countries We Live In (2014) and a co-edited volume called Magic Again: Selected Poems on Thomas Wolfe (2016).  His plays have been performed across the U.S., including six Off-Off-Broadway, and in Europe.  He has published a variety of articles and is current president of the North Carolina Poetry Society.