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Winter 2008

Poetry

Dean Brink
Alan Catlin
Jim Doss
Darrell Epp
Taylor Graham
Ken Gurney
Michelle Lerner
Michele Lesko
Lynn Lifshin
M
Corey Mesler
Mitchell Metz
Bryan Mitschell
Maurice Oliver
Patty Paine
Jayne Pupek
Nic Sebastian
Shawn Sorensen
Lynn Strongin
Christy Tomecek

Flash Fiction

David Jordan
Richard Rippon
Jack Swenson

Featured Artist

Don Snell

Congratulations
2007 Pushcart Nominees:

Editors:

Jennifer VanBuren
Jai Britton
Patrick Carrington
Alex Nodopaka

Richard Rippon

Winter 2008

Found and Lost

Last night, I found where all the lost things go.

I was in the kitchen and I dropped my bottle opener, which skittered across the floor and underneath the fridge. I had to ease the fridge out of it's place in the alcove to get it, and when I did, I noticed a starry patch of dark blue light emanating from behind. I investigated further, shifted the fridge entirely and there it was. There was a rough hole knocked through the brickwork, looking out onto a swirling mass of things. It was like the milky way, rotating slowly if front of me, spiraling infinitely, each point, not a star, but an object long since given up for lost. Some things were near enough to see in detail, others mere dots in the distance, too far off to make out.

I watched, mesmerized, as the objects passed by; a football, a huge set of keys, a paperback book and a roll of dollar bills with a silver money clip. I leant my hand in through the opening, but couldn't reach. Then, I noticed things I recognized. A rubber dinosaur I threw up on my first school roof which I was too small to retrieve. A watch which I'd pleaded for as a Christmas present and lost almost instantly at school. Concert tickets for The Happy Mondays which had disappeared from the mantelpiece in 1989. Keys to my Mother's Renault 5 which I thought had gone down the back of a girlfriends couch. They were all there. I thought of sitting up all night to see what else I could see (Shergar ?, The Lost Ark ? Lord Lucan ?), but the alcohol had gotten the better of me.

The next morning, it was gone entirely. I had lost all of the lost things.

Also, I noticed later, a bottle of whisky was missing from my shelf.

Richard Rippon lives in the North East of England with his wife and baby daughter where he also works in an aftershave factory (is it any good ? no it stinks). He has also appeared in Cautionarytale.com and some of his other work can be found here: www.myspace.com/richrippon.