Category: Fall ’24 Poetry

‘My New Normal’ and ‘Meditation on the Length of a Life’

‘My New Normal' and ‘Meditation on the Length of a Life’

Poetry

by Bethany Jarmul

New Normal - Bethany Jarmul

Meditation on the Length of a Life

Time grows slippery like a fluttering
Bluegill, when you try to capture

it between your palms, but when you
want it to rush like a river current

through your fingers, it thickens
to muddy milkshake, then cement.

No one has invented a yardstick
for the lives of the not yet

dead, so we stand back-to-back
like children at recess, hoping

we’ve grown an inch during math
class, hoping to be the tallest,

to live the longest, hoping that’s
what matters in the end.

New_Normal_Illustration_500x500
About the Author

Bethany Jarmul is an Appalachian writer and poet. She’s the author of two chapbooks and one poetry collection. Her work has been published in many magazines including Rattle, Brevity, Salamander, and One Art. Her writing was selected for Best Spiritual Literature 2023 and Best Small Fictions 2024, and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, The Best of the Net, Best Microfiction, and Wigleaf Top 50. Connect with her at bethanyjarmul.com or on social media: @BethanyJarmul.

 

About the Artist

Kate Horsley’s illustrations are made from a combination of collage, ink and watercolour paintings and fabric. She has taught photography workshops for a number of years in the UK and France, specialising in alternative processes like wet cyanotype, wetplate collodion, gum bichromate and polaroid emulsion lifts. Kate’s main subject-matter is the natural world and she experiments with handmade botanical inks, prints on birch bark, hand-coloured images, and prints made from leaves, flowers and grasses. Visit Kate’s website here.

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‘Masa’ and ‘Last Shot’

'Masa' and 'Last Shot'

Poetry

by Christopher Rubio-Goldsmith

Masa

The fire is full of faces, some bored, some fresh and
some stale. Try remembering this
you can always leave. Just stand, make sure
the harmonica your abuelo gave you is
in your pocket, and then stride out into there.

Once at a party full of classmates you tried
telling the story of Popocateptl and Iztaccihatl.
The one with the jean mini skirt asked, “how do you know
this?” Because when making tamales
you need something to dispatch the
boredom of olives and corn husks. Or
when you are making tortillas you need
to make sure the masa is smooth. Stories
help create a texture you can bake.

The idea that a volcano erupts because
of love is beyond myth and trope. Sometimes
near that fire, for an instant, we discover
who we are then we fear to lose it.

Last Shot

Without time and days in rooms
without windows and loud music raining
around the walls, there we kept the mom
out of it, sketching pictures
of sad hillbillies and clowns
walking three legged dogs. Red snow cones
dripping on their snouts. Outside we filled
up the blue plastic wading pool,
lounging like broken days, moving it, staying
in the shadows. The day’s heating so real
we composed soundtracks for it. Practicing our
Spanish because we never knew when one of our
crazy tios would appear carrying an ice chest
and an alligator. If we didn’t answer correctly
and quickly we received nalgadas.

Often others arrived carrying opened bottles of booze.
Chairs pulled near the small blue wading pool,
tunes turned louder. We all sang
along, because we knew what summer days were for.

If Curtis arrived, he insisted we find the Giant’s game
on the radio. We’d cheer for Bonds, and mock the redneck
Kemp. The day picked up pace until the last shot. The diminishing
bottles looking sad, like the myth where the sun stops rising.
This was youth wasted? We were once happier,
but it only lasted a quiet long walk
on the beach watching the baby turtles swim into the surf.
The big birds acting indifferent overhead.

Tena_S_Cyano_dried_flowers_2
About the Author

Christopher Rubio-Goldsmith was born in Merida, Yucatan, grew up in Tucson, Arizona and taught English at Tucson High School for 27 years. Much of his work explores growing up near the border, being raised biracial/bilingual and teaching in a large urban school where 70% of the students are American/Mexican. A Pushcart and Best of the Net nominee, his writings will appear in Clockhouse, and Inverted Syntax and have been published in Sky Island Journal, Cool Beans Journal, Discretionary Love and other places too. His wife, Kelly, sometimes edits his work, and the two cats seem happy.

 

About the Artist

Tena Smith is a multidisciplinary artist whose work in a variety of mediums has been showcased and sold in multiple galleries and boutiques across the state of Florida since 2007. Her love of experimental techniques can be seen in much of her work no matter the medium. Finding endless joy in the creative process and problem solving, it is the journey that drives her more so than the end result. She believes that sharing that journey with others in the hope of inspiring them to find their own unique voice is where true success lies. She describes her cyanotype process at Alternative Photography and she posts on Instagram as @tenasmithdesigns.

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‘Life won’t stand still!’ and ‘prey-predator interaction’

'Life won't stand still!' and 'prey-predator interaction'

Poetry

by Danielle McMahon

Life won't stand still!

frankenpo sources:
Snyder, Solomon H. “Mending Shattered Minds.” Science Year: The World Book Science Annual (1981), World Book Inc., pp. 129-139.
&
A full-page advertisement for Kodak Eastman Co. in National Geographic Magazine, August 1953.

my mouth was full of birds
entombed, rambling ::
caught between my teeth

their feathers
I crunched without
cause & without motive

: : :

nowadays I see more & more
almost right into the sun ::
the action

the reality of life itself ::
the joys & thrills of
blood & broken bones ::
the ravages

: : :

precious above all others ::
a truly living record
deteriorated & choking
speaking incoherently & giggling
inappropriately much of the time ::

prey-predator interaction

frankenpo sources:
Morgan, David. “The Girl with the Unlighted Lantern.” New Horizons through Reading and Literature, Brewton, John E., Babette Lemon & Marie Ernst (Eds), Laidlaw Brothers Inc., 1958, pp. 191-195.
&
Brower, Lincoln Pierson. “Practicing to Deceive.” Science Year: The World Book Science Annual (1990), World Book Inc., pp. 68-83.

there are many forms of mimicry
sat down to supper by candlelight
/or/
there are animals that appear to be
large fake eyes rolling, churning
in a flash of lightning
/and/
there are animals to eat
other animals
/or/
uprooted, the unpalatable species,
the inconspicuous ones
through the leaves
almost invisibly
/or/
for a scant second
soaked to the skin
& raindrops glistening in the sun
/and/
some beautifully dappled
some beautifully dull & inconspicuous
some a yellow beam through the wet blackness
a mosaic of light & shade
& too much rain
/or/
this type of deceit
crumpled under the weight
of an old coat
/and/
nobody talked much at the table

Tena_S_Cyano
About the Author

Danielle McMahon’s recent work can be found in Unlost, Witcraft, and Zhagaram. The two pieces here are frankenpo/found poems. Frankenpo is a fascinating and challenging form much like a puzzle; Danielle takes them from disparate sources so that when she mashes them together the results are unexpected. She lives in PA with her family. She posts on instagram as @dehm000.

 

 

About the Artist

Tena Smith is a multidisciplinary artist whose work in a variety of mediums has been showcased and sold in multiple galleries and boutiques across the state of Florida since 2007. Her love of experimental techniques can be seen in much of her work no matter the medium. Finding endless joy in the creative process and problem solving, it is the journey that drives her more so than the end result. She believes that sharing that journey with others in the hope of inspiring them to find their own unique voice is where true success lies. She describes her cyanotype process at Alternative Photography and she posts on Instagram as @tenasmithdesigns.

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His Eurydice of Chimney Creek, Virginia

His Eurydice of Chimney Creek, Virginia

Poetry

by JC Alfier

His Eurydice of Chimney Creek, Virginia

for Tay, whose laughter found the wounds

All this holding back      dissembling
     half-earned sorrow

these waymarks      missteps
     of the underworld

unaltered eyes      dashboard dimness —
     autumnal glow of falling back

to fugitive transit:      hallway      staircase
     terminal      blind curve

of a midnight exit ramp

K_H_Cyano_Fern_1
About the Author

JC Alfier’s most recent book of poetry, The Shadow Field, was published by Louisiana Literature Press (2020). Journal credits include Faultline, New York Quarterly, Notre Dame Review, Penn Review, River Styx, Southern Poetry Review and Vassar Review. He is also an artist doing collage and double-exposure work.

 

About the Artist

Kate Horsley’s illustrations are made from a combination of collage, ink and watercolour paintings and fabric. She has taught photography workshops for a number of years in the UK and France, specialising in alternative processes like wet cyanotype, wetplate collodion, gum bichromate and polaroid emulsion lifts. Kate’s main subject-matter is the natural world and she experiments with handmade botanical inks, prints on birch bark, hand-coloured images, and prints made from leaves, flowers and grasses. Visit Kate’s website here.

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‘You bring me a basket of peaches’ and ‘Procession’

'You bring me a basket of peaches' and 'Procession'

Poetry

by Hanna Webster

You bring me a basket of peaches

and I peel and slice
crescent moons, hands wet
with their juices

Next week, I arrive
on your doorstep with an offering
redolent of brown sugar, steam
pinking my smile

We plop homemade heavy cream
on peach pie, burn our fingers
against caramel edges
then run our fingers under cold water,
shaking our heads

Incandescence envelops
your body and the amber walls
of your living room grow
warm in our presence. There is
a magnetism I’ve stopped trying
to resist, though I never act on. Still,
it caresses.

Over just-sweet-enough dessert wine
(because we’re feeling indulgent)
you tell me I haven’t changed

And you squeeze my shoulder as you stand
to take my plate.

Procession

Untitled
Mark_H_Inks_4
About the Author

Hanna Webster is an award-winning journalist and poet with an M.A. from Johns Hopkins University. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in HAD, Bellingham Review, Epiphany Mag, BRUISER Mag, Fifth Wheel Press, Door is A Jar Mag, and elsewhere. She lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. X: @hannamwebster; Insta: @ivory.daydream

About the Artist

A multi-disciplinary creative, Mark Holman’s practice initially focused on figurative subjects – both sculpted and drawn. Recently, his process has drawn on parallel creative ventures as an actor, musician and horticulturalist, evolving beyond the purely figurative to focus on human connections with nature in a more socially engaged way. The goal of Mark’s current projects is to engage community and encourage discourse, supporting sustainability and promoting healthier relationships with the environment.

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Les Tournels

'Les Tournels' and 'Point of Departure'

Poetry

by Eóin Flannery

Les Tournels

In Winter, when the evenings
close in and daylight slips
away, draining out the sky,
the house is quieter
than Summer months,
when children are tricked
into thinking that the world
shines longer for them,
now that they have the time
to see it.

There is a picture of a girl
standing on a sloped vineyard
in France. Her tiny right hand
tries to shield her brown eyes
from the slant of the late evening
sun. Her face beams with the
exhaustion of a child’s Summer.

Later, when it is dark and the blue
bay outside has lulled her to sleep,
her white blond hair fans out
in a semi-circle, veins
of curls like a bleached
sunrise laid out on a
goose-down pillow.

Point of Departure

The sky moans and the evening sinks
to its knees.
I sit in the subsiding bungalow,
hosted by the roll of steps
that have thinned out the carpet
under feet,
long-since gone.

These walls are points of departure,
spored with memories,
to which
you are now threaded.

Absence presses on the single-storey of loss,
the single-glazed windows shiver off
the grime
of years,
dirt and time
lodged under finger-nails.

With my fingers on the floor,
I can trace our story
on the unstitching fabric,
its torn ends are the worn braille
of our lives.

Tena Smith 5
About the Author

Eóin Flannery is a writer and critic based in Limerick, Ireland, where he is Associate Professor of English Literature at Mary Immaculate College. He has published 12 books of literary and cultural criticism. His poetry has appeared in The Honest Ulsterman; Libre; The Galway ReviewRochford Street Review; Red Ogre Review; Juniper; and many other international publications. His poetry is forthcoming in The Tiger Moth Review; the engine(idling; Cigarette Fire Magazine; Sparks Literary Journal and The Hog River Press. He is working on a collection of poems entitled, Unshadow. 

About the Artist

Tena Smith is a multidisciplinary artist whose work in a variety of mediums has been showcased and sold in multiple galleries and boutiques across the state of Florida since 2007. Her love of experimental techniques can be seen in much of her work no matter the medium. Finding endless joy in the creative process and problem solving, it is the journey that drives her more so than the end result. She believes that sharing that journey with others in the hope of inspiring them to find their own unique voice is where true success lies. She describes her cyanotype process at Alternative Photography and she posts on Instagram as @tenasmithdesigns.

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My Mother, My Joy, My Sorrow

My Mother, My Joy, My Sorrow

Poetry

by Jonathan Chibuike Ukah

My Mother, My Joy, My Sorrow

I watch you get busy every morning,
in the shadows cast by these ugly trees,
littering our compound like corpses
standing as guards into our house.
You wake up early before the birds
begin to chirp in their nests,
or their feathers cuddle our thatch roof,
before their silent walk turns into flight.
You raise the hot pot on your head,
ready to go to the market to hustle,
and return with a basket of eggs,
a loaf and a gallon of fresh milk.
You return wearing a smile like lipstick,
your eyes flickering with the joy
of seeing us nestle on your bosom,
devouring the fruits and sweets of your hands.

In the afternoon, you hurry to the farm
with my sisters, and sometimes me,
without minding the sweltering heat
and your age that grows by the hour,
your afternoon glow turning grey;
you carry hoes, cutlasses and shovels
to till the hard ground and sow seeds.
You don’t care about the hard earth,
but you stuck the old hoe on the crust,
wipe the trickles of water from your brow
and ask us if we are hungry or thirsty.
The bottle of water by your side
returns to us and ends up in our throat
while you stand akimbo with a smile
in the middle of the farm like a heroine
who destroyed the dragons in her house.

Now, I see you grow closer to evening shadows,
cast by the wilting flowers in front of our house,
closer and closer towards the flowing stream,
and I wonder how you will reap our harvest.
Drenched in your work, you never stop
to ask time to hold the reins of its horse,
when your strength comes in sighs and pants,
like a tree climber pausing for strength
before he reaches the top of the tree.
I wonder what colour your childhood was,
and what dreams kept you up in bed,
that coerced God to send this toil and boil
growing in your soul like a dark mushroom.
It can never be otherwise, you realise
that we will donate to you our old age
as you gave us your childhood and dreams.

Mark_H_Inks_2
About the Author

Jonathan Chibuike Ukah lives in the United Kingdom with his family. His poems have been featured in various literary journals and anthologies. He won the Alexander Pope Poetry Award of The Pierian in 2023 and the Voices of Lincoln Poetry Contest in 2022. He was longlisted for the Black Fox Poetry Prize in 2024 and shortlisted for the Minds Shine Bright Poetry Prize in 2024. He won the Unleash Press Editor’s Choice Prize in 2024.

About the Artist

A multi-disciplinary creative, Mark Holman’s practice initially focused on figurative subjects – both sculpted and drawn. Recently, his process has drawn on parallel creative ventures as an actor, musician and horticulturalist, evolving beyond the purely figurative to focus on human connections with nature in a more socially engaged way. The goal of Mark’s current projects is to engage community and encourage discourse, supporting sustainability and promoting healthier relationships with the environment.

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Tu y Yo

Tu y Yo

Poetry

by Jeanette Russo

Tu y Yo

Tu y Yo. You and Me. Ironic choice
of the cafe to meet in.
Today.
I would have thought
it cute on another day
A local bar run by José,
a man from the barrio.
I welcome the familiar dank smell
that permeates the walls. Abañiles
sit in a row of stools, eyes upwards 

on the giant intrusion blaring the 8 o’clock news,
their curls of smoke fade into
nothingness. Sipping carajillos, coffee laced
with whiskey. It gives them courage
to face the day.
I’ll have what they’re having, José.

 

He says he needs to talk; to tell me something
The words soar like bats in my head
twisting and turning, hoping for
an escape while I sit waiting in a dark
corner table near the bathroom.
We sit in the shadows
of places off the beaten track.
He’s late as usual.
It’s normal. Normal is good. Today.
Normal is what we/they all need.
Another carrajillo, José.

 

Bursting in worn and
ragged, wearing a Barbour
in need of wax
Greasy strips of dark hair
Frame a foreign stark face
Sunken eyes with dark halfmoons
hang under each wet pool
Leaning in to kiss me, his lips dry,
cold, chill me to the core. His odor alien,

 

The news cannot be good—he’s dying of cancer,
his house has burnt to the ground,
he has lost all of his money.
He orders a double Jack. Straight up.

 

The news cannot be good.
He is being transferred to the other side
of the world, someone else has died,
he lost his job.

 

He sits silent. I struggle out of my
coat, smothering me. I yank off my
scarf, choking me.
Agony crawls up the
walls of my stomach and pauses
when reaching my throat.

 

I watch as a single tear rolls
down his check and weeps
into his whiskey. I stare down
at the hands trembling in my lap. My
hands. A leather covered button
on my grey wool skirt hangs. Loose. I tug
at it, the thread strong but slack.
I twist the strands around and around
my finger until it throbs and turns
a shade of purple. I rip it off leaving
a glaring void and when at last
I raise my head,
he is gone.
Without a word.
The news could not have been good.

Tena_S_Cyano_cyan_mauve_3
About the Author

Jeanette Russo is an American writer of Japanese-Italian descent living with her Spanish husband on the island of Majorca. There, she was selected to participate in a writing workshop led by New York Times bestselling author, Alice LaPlante. She holds an MA in Creative Writing and is working on her first novel based on the life of her mother, a Japanese war bride, as well as a flash fiction collection. Her stories have been published in Adanna Literary Journal, and in Perfect Victims: Six Suspense Stories (Comma Press, 2024).

About the Artist

Tena Smith is a multidisciplinary artist whose work in a variety of mediums has been showcased and sold in multiple galleries and boutiques across the state of Florida since 2007. Her love of experimental techniques can be seen in much of her work no matter the medium. Finding endless joy in the creative process and problem solving, it is the journey that drives her more so than the end result. She believes that sharing that journey with others in the hope of inspiring them to find their own unique voice is where true success lies. She describes her cyanotype process at Alternative Photography and she posts on Instagram as @tenasmithdesigns.

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‘But Don’t Call Me Ishmael’ and ‘Am’

'But Don't Call Me Ishmael' and 'Am'

Poetry

by G Timothy Gordan

Just Don’t Call Me Ishmael

I’m beyond knowing the Big Picture,
Art, my betters do, just never finicky
raven pivoting for any hot, bloody mess,
geese gone suddenly summer north,
grubworm, copperhead, about Outback business,
without notice or care, moonlight shine,
shimmer over desert mountain tarn,
restive, swollen night cumuli, dawn-burst,
no White Whale, odd, obsessive boss,
life-altering quest, deathless smart mate,
just curious, like them, about timeless things
of this world, artless in their living way,
book-learning gone awry.

(Y)am Man

Who knows but that on lower frequencies, I speak for you?
-R. Ellison, Invisible Man-
-Popeye the Sailor Man, “I yam what I yam,” 1933 cartoon-

Back in again from Out There where nothing lives
but brute critter and fowl, crawlies close to earth,
fetid, rank vegetation, acres of baked silica and stone
and mesa, dry gulch, arroyo, mountain, yet wild and alive,
agelessly young in unlovely, though not unloved, withdrawal,
offering nothing but subtly fresh, spikey, misshapen selves
to eye, arid air, unstinting sun and wind, where time melts,
as if it never left its burn. Email, text, from schoolmates,
some close, most not, wanting to catch up, hook-up, know me,
assuming I’m that that me, then, I suppose, which gives pause
if past is past, or not, imprimaturs Aristotle-Freud-Faulkner
promulge as tragic family fiat, all I know for sure I’m here now,
beamed-up back up into cyberspace, into boyhood, codes,
hi-tech wiring, AI stuff I know nothing about, as though
back at the hop, Cottman Ave. Burger & Malt Shoppe, Joanie’s,
Friday?, as if I never left who I was, online snaps current enough
to satisfy any nosy Parker who now live airily on IG, X, Facebook,
Snapchat or Tik Tok, Tinder, Bumble, Grindr, no techie me,
I never answer (I know, not cool), in decadent aughts patois du jour,
never OG retweet, slide into DMs, mentor guilty schoolboy habit,
let a past have me its own, as I was, maybe still am, ¿quién sabe?,
and so sophomorically (my bad!), make it an in-your-face, retro,
Wilt/Dr. J. slam dunk, be like Air Mike, ghost them all.

Tena_S_Cyano_green_3
About the Author

Gordon’s DREAM WIND was published 2020 (Spirit-of-the-Ram), GROUND OF THIS BLUE EARTH (Mellen), while EVERYTHING SPEAKING CHINESE received RIVERSTONE P Poetry Prize (AZ) and BLUE BUSINESS was accepted by Cyberwit Press (Autumn-Winter 2024/25). Work appears in AGNI, American Literary R, Cincinnati PR, Mississippi R, New York Q, RHINO, Sonora R, Texas Observer, several nominated for Pushcarts. His eighth book, EMPTY, was published January 2024 (Cyberwit P). He divides lives between New Mexico/Texas borderland Chihuahuan Desert Southwest Organ Mountains and Asia.

About the Artist

Tena Smith is a multidisciplinary artist whose work in a variety of mediums has been showcased and sold in multiple galleries and boutiques across the state of Florida since 2007. Her love of experimental techniques can be seen in much of her work no matter the medium. Finding endless joy in the creative process and problem solving, it is the journey that drives her more so than the end result. She believes that sharing that journey with others in the hope of inspiring them to find their own unique voice is where true success lies. She describes her cyanotype process at Alternative Photography and she posts on Instagram as @tenasmithdesigns.

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Erasure Series on Texas Book Bans

'Erasure Series on Texas Book Bans'

Poetry

by Ronnie Stephens

LETTER SENT TO SCHOOL DISTRICTS BY MATT KRAUSE: AN ERASURE

Inkfish Magazine Submission

BOOK LIST SENT TO SCHOOL DISTRICTS BY MATT KRAUSE, PAGE 1: AN ERASURE

Inkfish Magazine Submission

BOOK LIST SENT TO SCHOOL DISTRICTS BY MATT KRAUSE, PAGE 2: AN ERASURE

Inkfish Magazine Submission

BOOK LIST SENT TO SCHOOL DISTRICTS BY MATT KRAUSE, PAGE 4: AN ERASURE

Inkfish Magazine Submission
Texas_book_ban_500x500
About the Author

Ronnie K. Stephens is the author of Universe in the Key of Matryoshka, They Rewrote Themselves Legendary, and The Kaleidoscope Sisters. He joins the many artists calling for a Free Palestine and an end to genocide in every corner of the world.

About the Artist

Kate Horsley’s illustrations are made from a combination of collage, ink and watercolour paintings and fabric. She has taught photography workshops for a number of years in the UK and France, specialising in alternative processes like wet cyanotype, wetplate collodion, gum bichromate and polaroid emulsion lifts. Kate’s main subject-matter is the natural world and she experiments with handmade botanical inks, prints on birch bark, hand-coloured images, and prints made from leaves, flowers and grasses. Visit Kate’s website here.

Related