Summer 2009
Abha Iyengar
Alison Eastley
Barton Smock
Bridget Gage-Dixon
Charles Reis
Cheryl Snell
Daniel Crocker
David Jordan
David Lawrence
Dennis Mahagin
Doug Ramspeck
Henry Louis Shifrin
John Sweet
Kathryn Jacobs
Lois P. Jones
Margaret Babbott
Mather Schneider
Richard Lighthouse
Roger Pfingston
Roy Lewis
Simon Perchik
Tim Kahl
Tony Leuzzi
Julie Steiner
Don Shaeffer
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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Bridget Gage-Dixon
Summer 2009
Fireflies
Inside the plastic bottle on the table
they flash furiously as they climb
the severed blades of grass our sons
plucked from the lawn before they slid
sticky palms around these creatures
who hours ago rose above the grass
and ignited.
The boys don’t care that each flash, once desire
has turned to fear, that air siphoned in
through slits is not the same as the air
that flowed beneath their wings outside.
I see you, half asleep on the couch,
caught between the blue glow of the television
and the random yellow sparks inside the bottle,
and try to remember that summer before college,
the two of us scaling the fence at Thompson Park
at 2 a.m. to lay a blanket down on pine straw.
Fireflies hovered across the open field,
a hundred iridescent bellies the only light around us
as your hand slid back my skirt,
the scent of beer and cigarettes mingling in our mouths.
Tonight, you don’t seem to notice the small sparks
bursting below wings sticky with the syrup
that still coats the old container.
And though our sons’ small faces may crumple
tomorrow morning when they see the empty bottle,
I walk outside, untwist the lid
and watch fireflies climb the bottleneck
and escape into August air.
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Julie Steiner Butterfly
We accept submissions all year long, however, we read them only during the month before publication, so please do not get upset if you do not hear from us right away.
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