SELF-IMPOSED ISOLATION

by Mark Danowsky

Philadelphia. Credit WMMR drone.

I do my due diligence
staying inside

I go for walks—
sometimes twice a day

I try to get 6000 steps

I try to make a day feel like a day

I have my tea

I try to find words

I try to reach out via the virtual

Sometimes I cover my bed in books
then fail to crack a single one

I tell myself today will be the day
I pick up a paint brush

I have so many problems
that are good problems to have

I go out shopping once a week now

I made it almost two weeks twice
but I felt like I was losing touch

Since we cannot touch
I tell myself other senses take primacy

Once I got in the car and took to the highway
to get to a good speed
                                                                                                                 
Then I walked the main drag
in another ghost town

I miss the feeling of being in motion

Being in motion was helping me
in this era of grief


Mark Danowsky is a poet / writer from Philadelphia and author of the poetry collection As Falls Trees (NightBallet Press, 2018). He’s Managing Editor for the Schuylkill Valley Journal.

ST. AGNES EVE ARRIVES IN STEUBENVILLE, OHIO

by Diane Kendig

Protesters return to Steubenville voicing concerns about rape case --Steubenville Herald-Star, February 3, 2013

The Lessons of Steubenville --The New Yorker, January 11, 2013

Rape Case Unfolds on Web and Splits City--The New York Times, December 16, 2012

From outside Harding Field
I think of the legal brief,
and of the freshman girl
who has had no relief
though surely she has dreams.

The coaches played their teams
for pics and Tweets don’t count
at least not to any amount.

Therefore,
a motion gets filed mid-December
asking the court please remember
she may not be victim, but whore.


Diane Kendig, who has worked as a poet, writer, translator and teacher for over 40 years, is the author of four poetry collections, most recently The Places We Find Ourselves (fall 2009). A recipient of two Ohio Arts Council Fellowships in Poetry and a Fulbright lectureship in translation, she has published widely in literary journals, including J Journal, Wordgathering, About Places, and qarrtsiluni.