Fall/Winter 2009-10
tom oristaglio
scott summers
cindy childress
tom rechtin
james b. nicola
debra rymer
doug draime
corey mesler
rebecca schumejda
chris crittenden
arlene ang
joey nicoletti
brad johnson
lorie allred
elizabeth kay
alexander russo
nissa lee
kenneth gurney
jessi lee gaylord
keith brighouse
ajay vishwanathan
ethel rohan
william "cully" bryant
julie steiner
Steiner Interview
by Alex Nodopaka
Jennifer VanBuren
Jai Britton
Alex Nodopaka
Patrick Carrington
Mannequin Envy in memory of poet and artist Douglas Gamrath
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Cati Porter
Fall 2007
Night Before Thanksgiving All I Can Think About Is Him
It is late and the dark has arched its back
over our lit house. The children are asleep,
the light is on in our room and we are
involved in a kind of meditation.
My husband touches me there, my eyes
sealed shut with the wax of concentration.
His fingers like a midwife’s slide in, stretch –
ghost-sting in my perineum where it once was torn
as though I am about to birth something else;
as though there were not any other way.
But it doesn’t really hurt. The thrill
of a thumb deftly placed and I am no longer
there – now I am above; there is thunder
below, and an embered autumn sky rising – rising – and hands
concerned with the field of me. My mind somersaults
through the coming feast (fingers inside me
swaddled by labial folds reminiscent
of the prickled neck-skin of a bird
into which I will reach) to an image
of my husband’s brother. Nothing left of him but
meat and bones, skin, skin....
There is no pleasure that can sweep this away.
Visit Cati's blog about poetry, motherhood, and other creative endeavors.
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Bio:
Cati Porter is a poet, reviewer, contributing associate editor for Babel, and founder and editor of Poemeleon: A Journal of Poetry. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming from kaleidowhirl, Literary Mama, mamazine, Poetry Midwest, Poetry Southeast, Banyan Review, Sunspinner and the anthologies Bedside Guide to No Tell Motel -- Second Floor (No Tell Books), White Ink: Poems on Mothers and Mothering (Demeter Press), and Letters To The World (Red Hen Press). She lives in Riverside, California, with her husband and two young sons.
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