Online Poetry & Art
Men who’ve proved themselves grab her attention, and she seizes theirs. One is married, one is almost divorced, another lives with his lover for years and even still. She’s calculating. She doesn’t mind the second hand.
She situates herself, then imagines: around her, the circle drawn with a protractor, extending her strange reach. Geometry is a question of shape, size, and position. She angles for what she wants. Her ratio of self to other is fractured.
She hates some things, and the men know this equilaterally. She pretends that she likes what they like, and they pretend too. She assumes they find her obtuse appreciation of these things charming, and they want to be charmed. The silence is golden.
Anna Leahy has authored the books of poetry Aperture, Constituents of Matter, and Tumor and co-authored others. Her essays and poetry have appeared in the Atlantic, Crab Orchard Review, and The Southern Review. She directs the MFA program in Creative Writing at Chapman University, edits the international journal TAB, and curates the Tabula Poetica reading series. See more at amleahy.com.
Joana Lutzen McCutcheon is an Australian architect and painter.
She is 97 years old and still adores nature. Joana lives in Daylesford, Victoria, Australia.
I. one minute I didn’t know
you & the next you
were on top of me on
Sara’s back porch, tasting
like flowers and Christmas.
II. when we tore my room apart
looking for your phone, I saw
your father’s anger shine
through your front teeth.
III. I remember lying
to them all & driving
to the beach, drinking
whiskey from the water bottle
we hid in a picnic basket.
IV. sometimes my heart still swells
for that time, fumbling around,
not being able to control
where we were going & not
wanting to
V. because we liked how it felt.
I still get that feeling
when I drive by your parents’ house
I still look for
your bedroom light.
Layla Lenhardt has most recently been published in Peeking Cat Poetry’s Yearly Anthology, Door is A Jar, and the forthcoming Third Wednesday and Muddy River Poetry Review. She is founder and Editor-in-Chief of 1932 Quarterly and she currently resides in Indianapolis with three cats.
“Devotion to Silence”
Judith Sander‘s “Devotion to Silence” is her response to Terri Thomas’ poem “Silence”. Mixed media collage using papers, oil pastels, pencil and acrylic paint. 18”H x 24”W. She believes a few moments of silence in our noisy worlds is important for our well being.
I’ve known earthquakes in my home
pots being thrown, plates crashing into
one another, drapes closing
in the afternoon.
I’ve felt the boom! boom!
above my bed,
and watched my dolls shake
their heads.
I don’t know what it must have felt like,
afterwards,
what she must have felt.
I never got to see her
exhausted
mess
on
the
floor.
Still
I lay there
waiting
for something to happen,
or change–
for her to come and get me
so I could hold her.
Sherri Levine is an award-winning poet who lives in Oregon and teaches English to adult immigrants and refugees at Portland Community College. Levine’s work has been published in the Timberline Review, the Hartskill Review, VoiceCatcher, and The Sun Magazine. She left New York’s harsh winters for the Pacific Northwest where she walks in the rain without her umbrella.
