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Category: Poetry

The First Man

Sarah Bruenning

by River & SouthPosted onDecember, 2021January, 2022

He holds in his hand a photo of me with a giant lollipop—half-sucked, colors relocated from the candy to my little mouth and he tells…

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Oyster Crackers

Robin Gow

by River & SouthPosted onDecember, 2021January, 2022

I wanted to be tossed in your salt water where the blue edges toward green and a siren pulls everyone’s hair down past their shoulders.…

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Second Base

Donna Weaver

by River & SouthPosted onDecember, 2021January, 2022

6th grade: I woke up, found my nipples, they were no longer pink. They were brown suntanned, dry skin, not soft like the rest of my body.…

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On the Bank of a River Styx

Virginia Laurie

by River & SouthPosted onDecember, 2021January, 2022

We were too busy enjoying the dregs of our summer, the last August of adolescence, to pay much mind to the cloaked figure in the…

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Burial

Anne Rieman

by River & SouthPosted onDecember, 2021January, 2022

That morning, I buried a baby bird. She was small and brown as any bird who lived a few days in a box and died.…

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Ode to Sadness

Candice Kelsey

by River & SouthPosted onDecember, 2021January, 2022

a not admitting of the Wound Until it grew so wide that all my Life had Entered it ~Emily Dickinson Unzip me from the inside,…

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Neighborhood Séance

Vincente Perez

by River & SouthPosted onDecember, 2021January, 2022

My friends were fist fights we broke each other down. To withstand what was ahead  We ate and spat prophecies misinterpreted as code-switching cyphered with streetlight hymns…

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Margaret O’Connell from the Projects

Amy Soricelli

by River & SouthPosted onDecember, 2021January, 2022

Margaret was the smartest girl in the class because her lunch bread was stale and her windows were dirty. She spent most afternoons hiding from the streaks…

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today is father’s day

Ruby Mary Gill

by River & SouthPosted onDecember, 2021January, 2022

today is father’s day says every billboard in the city the mugs are on sale the surcharge on the brunch is exorbitant and the pub beers…

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Bergamot

Shauna Shiff

by River & SouthPosted onDecember, 2021January, 2022

Someone labored over this swatch of grass, removing sod with hoe then shovel, creating too-perfect a rectangle, severe straight lines with the crisp, stark angles…

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The New Jim Crow Pantoum

Charles Payne

by River & SouthPosted onMay, 2021June, 2021

Imagine a large herd of zebras grazing on grassy green pasturesFrom the scrub, a Lion sprints towards the optical illusion of black and white stripesInstincts…

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The Fertile Mountains of West Virginia

John Repp

by River & SouthPosted onMay, 2021June, 2021

She adored rhododendrons & the festivaldedicated to them.Imagine each lung is a sponge said the pulmonologistbearing the shiny frown of his profession. She smoked those…

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The Barbara Jean Story

Charles Payne

by River & SouthPosted onMay, 2021June, 2021

Built by big, broken, and blistered Negro handsto serve the citizens of South Bend.They named me Public Natatorium,the largest indoor swimming pool in Indiana.I could…

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Signs

Alan Perry

by River & SouthPosted onMay, 2021June, 2021

He looked troubled as the requestcame over the intercom.Blind and deaf, he didn’t hearthe flight attendant or see the girlwho pressed the call buttonand said…

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Night School: A Cadralor

Carolyn Martin

by River & SouthPosted onMay, 2021June, 2021

1. Exhausted sheep have left the room.Too many nights fence-jumping beneathtoo many pounds of wool, they headfor pastures greener and compassionate. 2. A poem that…

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Florida Man Breaks into House He Used to Live In Because He ‘Felt at Home’

Paul David Adkins

by River & SouthPosted onMay, 2021June, 2021

Who hasn’t wanted to do that?He probably had the key,felt the familiar give of the tumblers. He knew the house wasn’t his,but wasn’t it? He…

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Felicity

Carrie Magness Radna

by River & SouthPosted onMay, 2021June, 2021

I wanted to walk down the aisle& see your beaming facethrough my lacy veil but my car was slammedinto the river; the veilthat now covers…

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Botfly

Susana Case

by River & SouthPosted onMay, 2021June, 2021

Vaseline, to get the botflyout of his forehead again.He’s had to do it three times; they creepthrough the sticky film to breathe. Do it, the…

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Absolution

Diane Kendig

by River & SouthPosted onMay, 2021June, 2021

For putting the coffee cone back in the cupboardwith its used wet grounds, I forgive youas I forgive you all your lapsed cleaning, the tubscrubbed,…

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Kindred Spirit

Cricket Lesso

by River & SouthPosted onDecember, 2020

Little bird,your heart beats fastagainst the glassof the closed windowinside my porch.Hold still.My warm handswrap around you.I turn,take one step, two.In the open doorway,I slowly…

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On Finding Out My Wife Wants to Shave Her (Almost) Invisible Mustache

Jean-Luc Fontaine

by River & SouthPosted onDecember, 2020

Only when sweat spatters              the thin blonde tips, can I spot it—               …

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Post Script

John Berry

by River & SouthPosted onDecember, 2020

It used to be the afterthoughtat the end of a letterthat final smirk of wit, that wistfultraveler meandering late to the fair. That was when…

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Rain Turns to Snow

Katie Budris

by River & SouthPosted onDecember, 2020

Like the last dayI would see you. Smiling— Wheels skidding on iceas I push you from parking lot to in-patient. Your handsuddenly becomes a child’s…

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Tennessee Waltz

Cricket Lesso

by River & SouthPosted onDecember, 2020

I dance the Tennessee Waltzwith Charlie,Old Charlie Blue Eyesin his thick tan sneakers.I hold him under the armsas we waltz, stiffly,two paces from his wheelchair.His…

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Tiny Letters

Cleveland Wall

by River & SouthPosted onDecember, 2020

I wrote them on adding-machine paper with ballpoint pen. I was always at it.Even before the reply to the last had comeI was crafting the…

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Tipping Point

Larry Pike

by River & SouthPosted onDecember, 2020

That frigid Saturday midnightmy mother’s car rolledout of the garageafter me because I failedto park four wheelson the plane of cementthen compounded my errorby leaving…

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Tabled

Darrell Parry

by River & SouthPosted onDecember, 2020

I sympathizewith the dining room table.The one that’s too big for the space it occupies.You have always taken care of itbecause you use it everyday,but…

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After the Catch

J.B. Stone

by River & SouthPosted onDecember, 2020December, 2020

—there was no release                                    no parade     …

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On, Lusty Gentlemen

Dorothy Cantwell

by River & SouthPosted onJune, 2020June, 2020

In early May, beneath the stars,the air is humming as the young, male tree frogstrill their love songs into the darkness—long, shuddering sighs of desire,one beginning…

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Grimalkin

Marilyn Humbert

by River & SouthPosted onJune, 2020June, 2020

the rumble of her feline songslips between my thumbsthis love like the windcatches me unawarelike moonbeams on midnight’s lakesoundlessas moth wings about the lantern’s bright beam and I’m…

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The Last One Picked

Robert Manaster

by River & SouthPosted onJune, 2020June, 2020

Out there beside the crabapple’s shade,the tyranny of balls, bats, and yellshaunted me somewhat less than if I was closer.I heard a truck grumble down…

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The Wood Grouse

Seth Jani

by River & SouthPosted onJune, 2020June, 2020

I can’t diveinto the gold of flowerswithout hearingthe petalshit the earth. It’s autumn, and I’m learning to processthe radial treesin their decay,the final eggof the northern…

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Milky Way at Echo Point

Oormila Vijayakrishnan Prahlad

by River & SouthPosted onJune, 2020June, 2020

I lean at the lookout and stargazeas Echo Point shrinks like a black holein the cross hatch of bottle greens. huddled in my anorak I waittousled wilderness…

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Corrugated

Sujash Purna

by River & SouthPosted onJune, 2020June, 2020

There were those brick cages long and high enoughto suck the daydreams out of our minds.The only hope was a glimpse of a cleavageacross another…

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Ungewunscht

Paul Bluestein

by River & SouthPosted onJune, 2020June, 2020

The dusty synagogue window looked out onto the narrow Austrian street belowUnterbergstrasse, where— what the world called Kristallnacht  and Jews called the beginning of the end—began  The photograph on…

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Shady Grove

Paul Bluestein

by River & SouthPosted onJune, 2020June, 2020

There are no groves in Shady Grove In fact, there is no shade Just concrete and Costco and condos and Wendy’s and RVs and WalgreensThere is no view of…

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A Neighbor’s Cat

Jacob Butlett

by River & SouthPosted onJune, 2020June, 2020

A patch of gingko-scented snow rests like a cat at the foot of the steps,yawning tawny crystalsinto the muddy grassladen with twiggy leaves. A child lays two…

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Clearwater

Sabyasachi Nag

by River & SouthPosted onJune, 2020June, 2020

Pelicans, like pundits, draw you in to the curve of their pouchquietly chewing carp— under your feet sand shifts, as though earth were adjusting in sleep.The clear…

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Fallen

TAK Erzinger

by River & SouthPosted onJune, 2020June, 2020

Trees foundsuddenly naked stripped whistled by windswaying, they bare it all like skinned bonesutterly devoid of shame From the mouthof the sky  snow tumbles downseason’s…

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Ripples

Marilyn Humbert

by River & SouthPosted onJune, 2020June, 2020

we tangle around youlike cobwebs when dad passed you brush yourself offsend us back to our own lives time passesetching unfamiliar patternsyour capricious hearta walking stickhelter-skelter…

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