Poetry Winter 2021 fiction all issues
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Cover
Andrej Lišakov
Laura Apol
I Take a Realtor through the House
& other poems
Rebekah Wolman
How I Want my Body Taken
& other poems
Devon Bohm
The Word
& other poems
Gillian Freebody
The Right Kind of Woman
& other poems
Anne Marie Wells
Gravestone Flowers
& other poems
Laura Turnbull
Restoration
& other poems
Andre F. Peltier
A Fistful of Ennui
& other poems
Peter Kent
Reflections on the Late Nuclear Attack on Boston
& other poems
Carol Barrett
Canal Poem #8: Hides
& other poems
Alix Lowenthal
Abortion Clinic Waiting Room
& other poems
Latrise P. Johnson
From My Women
& other poems
Brenna Robinson
repurposed
& other poems
may panaguiton
MOON KILLER
& other poems
Elizabeth Farwell
The Life That Scattered
& other poems
Bill Cushing
Two Stairways
& other poems
Richard Baldo
A Note to Prepare You
& other poems
Blake Foster
Aubade from the Coast
& other poems
Bernard Horn
Glamour
& other poems
Harald Edwin Pfeffer
Still stiff with morning cold
& other poems
Nia Feren
Neon Orange Tree Trunks
& other poems
Everett Roberts
A Mourning Performance
& other poems
Alaina Goodrich
The Way I Wander
& other poems
Olivia Dorsey Peacock
the iron maiden and other adornments
& other poems
Latrise P. Johnson
Remembering with Dad
While riding to the Big Star
Dad would tell us stories
About making soap
With lye in the fireplace.
In the store
I chose my customary Golden Flake Cheese Curls
Denise made claim to a bag of Doritos
Standing
Watching
In awe
Imagining Dad as the boy
His two little girls
Soap was here on a shelf somewhere
But not on Mom’s list today:
onion, tomato, ground beef, sugar, ketchup
She made spaghetti for dinner
What I wouldn’t give for another story from Dad
Him remembering soap
And us
Being amazed.
My Women
For “Mother” and Ma
I come from ol’ cussing ass women
Women who laugh deep
with hips and cigarettes
My women
trade beer for ice cream
for their kids
Sometimes they send their kids
to live with their fathers
My women
don’t cry
They lock themselves in rooms
They Sit quietly.
And sleep.
My women
watch cars go by from their upstairs windows
They call just to say hey
and to tell you that they made stew
that didn’t turn out right.
The Hardest Thing about Loving Night
I will sleep underneath my moon tonight.
I will kiss light upon your skin
You will fall in love and into a deep sleep
My light
Just for the night
I long to be in your sky
Another moon
Your moon
You belong to your world
I belong with you.
I am here
Always
I know.
I am too
Shadows of time
Memories
Fossils
Histories
Footsteps
Whispers
What is and what was.
Eternal and fragile we both are.
Lay with me until we are full
Take my light tonight
Let it touch
Let is last
This is all I get.
It is all that I have.
Better Half
I can always tell what parts of you that you love the most.
The parts that make you more
Half this
Part that
Shine lights on those parts
Point to those parts
Put frames around those parts
Place them carefully on mantles
Revere those parts.
The parts of you that aren’t like my parts
The dark parts
Curly parts
The parts that are wide
The parts with roots in Alabama
And Africa
Quiet those parts.
Half Black
Part that
No light to shine there
No frames for me
No mantle for mine
No worship of the parts that made me
That make me
In our body
Light and shadow
Honor and shame
Remembering ways to forget
Loving the ways we hate
What made us
Just to be better than Black.
Pasts, Present, and Futures
I’ve read skies
Sunny
With thick clouds
And
Blinding blues
Birds fly and mock
Ground dwellers
who squint from below.
I’ve watched skies
Stormy
With dark clouds
Where rain falls
On
Bowed heads
that watch the ground and
walk in circles.
I’ve waded skies
Flowing
With clouds made of silk
Drank them
Deep
While dreaming
Of new kisses and the possibilities of
You.
Latrise P. Johnson
is writer/scholar/mother/teacher who works as an associate professor of literacy education. Her scholarship examines the literacy practices of historically marginalized youth and how writing can be used to compose oneself into the world. Her writing explores personal histories, experiences, and relationships and seeks to illuminate how the everyday is beautiful and worth exploration. In addition to writing, she enjoys yoga, music, and traveling.