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Fall 2007

John Amen
Kathy Babcock
Kate Benedict
Jeff Calhoun
Howard Good
Kenneth Gurney
Sarah Jordan
Lynn Levin
Alex Grant
Tim Mayo
PJ Nights
Tim Peeler
Cati Porter
Doug Ramspeck
John Repp
Bill Roberts
RL Swihart
Spencer Troxell
Kelley White
Teresa White

Flash Fiction

Mike Estabrook
David Jordan
Kelly Mandryk-Layne
Willie Smith

Featured Artist

Matthew Rounsville

Photography
Donna Dixon

Back by popular demand:See most pages of poetry for her photos,as well as her artist's page from the summer issue.

"Trim" Mannequin Envy's first print anthology

Howard Good

Fall 2007

LOVE IS AN ACCIDENT WAITING TO HAPPEN

Time is invisible, a patch of black ice,
the other car skidding stately toward us.

What do we do now? What can we?
We’re a blur of birthdays and anniversaries

and then gone, catapulted into the ocean of the sky.
Or maybe it’s true, there are no such things

as accidents, just choices, whether to love or not
the frenzy of sirens, the emergency road flares,

the volunteer fireman with the red face of a drunk
who impatiently waves his baton in the middle

of the intersection as if conducting an orchestra
only he and the shaken survivors can hear.

THE LANGUAGE OF INFINITE LONGING

Everyone always asks why I look so sad.
I could say it’s because

words wake up from a full night’s sleep still tired,
refuse to answer the phone after a certain hour,

set mischievous fires,

wear long sleeves even in summer to hide their scars,
become tangled like insects in the witch’s hair.

Why am I sad? Oh, God, why aren’t you?

Howie Good, a journalism professor at SUNY New Paltz, is the author of two poetry chapbooks, Death of the Frog Prince (2004) and Heartland (2007), both from FootHills Publishing. His poems have appeared in numerous print and online journals, including Right Hand Pointing, Stirring, The Flutter Poetry Journal, Why Vandalism?, Raving Dove, New Verse News, Eclectica, Persistent Image, Mad Swirl, The Flask Review, The Rose & Thorn, Juked, The Orange Room Review, and Lily. He was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2006.