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quarterly journal of poetic and visual art

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Summer 2007


Caroline Albert
Donna Dixon
Shara Faskowitz
Adrian Heathcote
Stephen Mead
Michelle Morgan



Spring 2007

Featured Artist:
Jennifer Balkan

Poetry:
Michelle Augello-Page
Bob Bradshaw
Traci Brimhall
Wayne Crawford
Susan J. Cronin
Mark Cunningham
Patricia Gomes
Michael Estabrook
Charles Adés Fishman
Taylor Graham
Alex Grant
Michael Keshigian
Malaika King Albrecht
Douglas Korb
Eileen Malone
Kristine Ong Muslim
Simon Perchik
Alifair Skebe
Patricia Wellingham-Jones
Renate Wildermuth

Flash Fiction
David Gaffney
Willie Smith
Mark John Hiemstra


In Memory:
Douglas Gamrath
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"Trim" Mannequin Envy's first print anthology

 

Michelle Augello-Page

 

Cog

He says I'm nothing
but a goddamn whore, and it's true
I take his money, in the soft fold
of touch, I let his hungry mouth
onto mine, allow his searching hands
to feel the topography of my body
and it is a grim reality, I prostitute
my affections and he is greedy, he wants
and wants more, he is not content
ever, he wants woman, he will take it
when he can, he will take it from me
because he knows I have nothing else
and my own want is stronger
money, that cursed root, into which
nothing can grow, it unfurls itself as a
painful and knotted spine, that branch
lifting from the dirt, reaching desperately
and uselessly towards the sky


July

I love you like a woman
pinned to a carnival wheel

blindfolded, I spin
taut against splintered wood

my body is a temporal thing
skin, blood, bone

you throw knives
at the negative spaces

between my fingers, along
the line of neck and jaw

I hold my breath, I do not
speak. I don't want to break

your concentration
and risk a slip in direction

the sweat on your brow
is glistening in the hot sun

" I am a candidate for an MFA in Creative Writing at Adelphi University, where I have been exploring playwriting and fiction. Recent poetry has been published in Copper Nickel (the tattoo issue). In my work, I seek to find beauty in harsh realities, to liberate speech from silence and to elucidate and elevate basic human experience. I am currently at work on a collection of poetry."

"Olga and Otto"

by Jennifer Balkan