Mike James

 The River’s Architecture

for Louis McKee, d. 11/21/11

The river has a shape you follow with your

whole body: shoulder, footstep,

and ear-

those who know how to listen hear how

river wind is like breath, alive in lung and line.

Mike James makes his home in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. He has published in hundreds of magazines, large and small, and has performed his poetry at universities and other venues throughout the country. He has published over 20 collections and has served as visiting writer at the University of Maine, Fort Kent. His recent new and selected poems, Portable Light: Poems 1991-2021, was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award. His last collection, Back Alley Saints at the Tiki Bar, was published in April by Redhawk. He currently serves as the Poet Laureate of Murfreesboro, TN.

Agnes Vojta

Tattoo

She stands like a statue, arm raised, her wrist
rests on top of her head as the artist draws
with black marker on her naked body.

The tree with the dragon will cover her side
from breast to hip. A friendly dragon,
she had insisted when they looked through the sketches.

The needles of the tattoo gun etch
art into her flank. She bites her lip. Closes
her eyes, thinks it will be beautiful.

Heart felt

I put the laundry in the dryer
and remember the day we strolled
through the town after lunch,
not ready to say goodbye.

The years of absence
had fallen away like dust
in a breeze. Confidences
came easy. We wandered

into a store that sold soaps
and wooden brushes. A glass jar
with felted dryer balls
stood on the windowsill. I told you

how the dogs had claimed
my old one as a toy. You picked
a ball with a rainbow heart
and bought it for me.

I watched your car disappear
down the road. We forgot
to take a picture. But I smile
and think of you when I open my dryer.

Agnes Vojta grew up in Germany and now lives in Rolla, Missouri where she teaches physics at Missouri S&T and hikes the Ozarks. She is the author of Porous Land, The Eden of Perhaps, and A Coracle for Dreams (Spartan Press). Most recently, she collaborated with eight other poets on the book Wild Muse: Ozarks Nature Poetry (Cornerpost Press, 2022.) Agnes hosts the Poetry at the Pub reading series in Rolla and is associate editor of Thimble Literary Magazine. Her poems have appeared in a variety of magazines; you can read some of them on her website agnesvojta.com.

John Tustin

Peppermint

I was walking the frozen food aisle and I saw her in front of me,
Loading up her cart with frozen dinners.
She was just the right height and not a tattoo in sight.
Dressed in a thin jacket, blue jeans and sneakers,
She turned and looked at me as I stood there
And she gave me a smile before going back to her business.
Her eyes were something else, as grandma used to say.

I imagined she was forty years old, probably had two kids in high school or college
And she divorced her husband because he was unfaithful.
I imagined she was alone most nights and she painted them away while drinking wine.
I began imagining a lot of things standing there
While she read the ingredients on a box of Stouffer’s Lasagna.

I finally turned my face away, put my head down
And walked right past her.
She wore size seven sneakers.
She smelled like peppermint.
I went to the next aisle and then the next
And then I paid the cashier.
I didn’t see her again.

When I got to my car I started to think about it
As I loaded the groceries into the back seat –
If she smelled like spearmint instead of peppermint
She just might’ve had me.

John Tustin’s poetry has appeared in many disparate literary journals since 2009. His first poetry collection from Cajun Mutt Press is now available at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C6W2YZDP . fritzware.com/johntustinpoetry contains links to his published poetry online.

Chad Parenteau

Morning Talk

I dreamed of
a conversation

boring like
this one where

you failed
to convince

that I’m not
repeating mistakes.

Nothing learned.
No one changes.

Thank me
for listening.

Chad Parenteau hosts Boston's long-running Stone Soup Poetry series. His latest collection is The Collapsed Bookshelf. His poetry has appeared in journals such as Résonancee, Molecule, Ibbetson Street, Pocket Lint, Cape Cod Poetry Review, Tell-Tale Inklings, Off The Coast, The Skinny Poetry Journal, The New Verse News, The Rye Whiskey Review, Nixes Mate Review and anthologies such as French Connections and Reimagine America. He serves as Associate Editor of the online journal Oddball Magazine.