Monthly Archives: February 2017
Ricky Garni
MY FIRST WIFE Shari was a puppeteer on television in 1963 and she had an adorable puppet named LAMB CHOP who could scrunch up his face in a really cute way and also a puppet named CHARLIE HORSE who was … Continue reading
Sonja Benskin Mesher
:: my name repeated :: no smoke rising. he said my name over, over now he may be gone. there is no smoke, just mist rising, snow in the distance. quite cold, the car alarming. there is no smoke rising … Continue reading
Anna-May Laugher
A Shot at the Gorge Animals come softly to the brinks, kiss their mirror images and slake. Water carries water, pool to pool, sucks at cave walls, paints, ebbs, then switches to its proper course. Boy, respectful, skims and sips. He tastes … Continue reading
Thomas Zimmerman
In the Sticks So Grandpa Horace kept a still out in the sticks, the vines all twists, the garden gone to weeds. He played the banjo, gambled. Farmed, offhandedly. And I drink water now. Imagination fails. Too early for a … Continue reading
James Rose
NOT MISSING BASINGSTOKE Feathery fronded rivulets drain to the sea, Mirroring the stranded wracks, Horned, serrated, bladder; Lugworms’ sinuous, mudded mounds Cast elongated shadows on the silk smooth sand; Low waves slowly roll and gently slap the shore. He answers … Continue reading
Robert Nisbet
LIGHT OF EVENING He is in a small cottage facing West to a sun declining over a Welsh mountain. He has done little, in craft, in enterprise, today, this last month. He has had earnest relationships, few of which will … Continue reading
John Grey
HITCHHIKER The arrival of spring is welcome but not noteworthy. I enjoy buds on trees as much as anyone and yes, I tingle a little at the thought that eventually, they’ll be full-blown foliage but I know enough not to … Continue reading
D G Geis
Winter comes. Dead leaves rustle without too much fuss. Trees strip down– bony limbs shivered down to nothing, branches bent like old clothes hangers. Nature’s chemo kicking in. Insects disappear as if by magic. Life gets lived closer to the … Continue reading
The Open Mouse 