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Fall/Winter 2009-10

Poetry

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

Flash

ajay vishwanathan
ethel rohan
william "cully" bryant

Featured Artists
julie steiner

Steiner Interview
by Alex Nodopaka

Editors

Jennifer VanBuren
Jai Britton
Alex Nodopaka
Patrick Carrington

Mannequin Envy in memory of poet and artist Douglas Gamrath

Patricia Wellingham-Jones

High Point of the Day

Sad

when the high point

of your day

is the shower

When your young wife

strips down to silk

camisole and panties

helps you step

over the threshold

into streaming warm water

She shampoos your hair

slides her slick hands

over your face and chest

Soaps a cloth

She washes down

as far as possible

Washes up

as far as possible

Then she washes

possible

Even with all the skill

in her fingers

your penis barely rises

She dries you off

helps you into fresh clothes

touches butterfly lips

to lost possibilities

Published in End-Cycle, Palabra Productions, Chapbook Contest winner, 2006

Patricia Wellingham-Jones is a three-time Pushcart Prize nominee. Chapbooks include Don’t Turn Away: Poems About Breast Cancer (PWJ Publishing) and Hormone Stew (Snark Publishing). She won the Palabra Productions Chapbook Contest 2006 with End-Cycle, poems about caregiving. Her website is www.wellinghamjones.com .

Previously in Mannequin Envy:

Making a myth

I live my own American myth
stand with opaline eyes
in the bow of the boat

Orcas race toward me
leaping
through shallow waves

Arcs flash black and white
above Rosario Strait
as if launching
the whales into flight

then swoop under the boat
Emerge bounding
on the other side

Long after the pod fades from sight
and we moor in calm brackish waters

my heart speeds
with the orcas
looping the San Juan Islands

Mantra

On a very busy Sunday morning
Bonnie the waitress wishes
she had six arms
and rollerskates for four racing feet

Mutters under her breath
I love my job
I love my job
I love my job

Mannequin Envy no longer accepting submissions of poetry, art or flash fiction.

One final issue will be published in the spring. This will be an editor and reader's choice issue. Peruse the archives and send us your favorites!