Winner of the 2015 James Vaughan Poetry Contest
by Nicholas Becher
I found the sketching of my youth
Pieced into the confines of a dilapidated tree house
In the nook of a St. Louis suburb.
Through the scope of a pellet gun
I had fired death into the heart of a crow
That dangled upside down from a parallel branch
For a few brief lingering moments. Continue reading
Honorable Mention in the 2015 James Vaughan Poetry Contest
by Brian Cronwall
Under shooting stars, the quick commas of night,
a train rolls on. The next depot is in sight.
When will we get there? It’s cold in North Platte;
if you get off at the station at midnight,
you’ll freeze your nose hairs for sure. And if you step out
in Gila Bend, you’ll break into an instant sweat.
The same stars watch over both. We’re not
in either place yet, but we soon could be. Continue reading
Filed under Poetry
by Anna Halberstadt
First warm weekend in May
a single puffy cloud like foam in a cappuccino
against a perfectly blue background.
In Union Square behind
bouquets of lilacs in buckets
of cold water
an eight-year-old future math prodigy
is playing a blitz with a middle-aged
chess professional
of narrowly local ranking
a dollar fifty per game Continue reading
Filed under Uncategorized
by Julia Wieting
about to boat the stars, then see
ocean lit back and under all comes
swell lap sail luff fish slap
forget land so dive in digging
anemone polyp he‘e stingray eel
display midnight diorama on deck marks
spot in salty footprint map Continue reading
Filed under Poetry
by Devin Murphy
The new house is a quarried-sandstone ranch built in the late fifties on a wooded acre with a serpentine creek cutting through the backyard. The great room has a pitched-ceiling and three walls of high windows that flood the cherry wood floors with light. You loved it as soon as you went up the driveway. She liked the open, well-lit layout, and you liked how the lushness of the property made it seem like there were no neighbors. You both liked the idea of your son playing with his dog in the large yard, climbing trees, collecting pinecones, catching crayfish. Continue reading
Filed under Fiction
