Volume 2 2009
Urania: An Editorial Preface
I thought I might reach out and touch the top of her stone, then berated myself for being a groupie. ‘Act like a grown man, for godsake,’ I chastised myself. But as I stood staring at her, I soon broke down, “What the hell will it hurt?” I reached out my hand to caress the top of the small monument . . . and the very instant I touched the stone, a substantial church bell blurted a loud toll, causing me to jump back, scan the cemetery for witnesses, and abruptly focus on a large tombstone heralding the surname, WARD, my own name.
Rod Stroked Survival with a Deadly Hammer
Rebecca fantasized that life was a lottery ticket or a pull of a lever, that one of the bunch in her pocket was a winner or the slots were a redeemer; but life itself was not real that was strictly for the mentally insane at the Elgin Mental Institution. She gambled her savings away on [...]
Mother, Edith, at 98
Edith, in this nursing home blinded with macular degeneration, I come to you with your blurry eyes, crystal sharp mind, your countenance of grace− as yesterday’s winds I have chosen to consume you and take you away. “Oh, where did Jesus disappear to”, she murmured, over and over again, in a low voice dripping words [...]
Gingerbread Lady
Gingerbread lady, no sugar or cinnamon spice; years ago arthritis and senility took their toll. Crippled mind moves in then out, like an old sexual adventure blurred in an imagination of fingertip thoughts. Who in hell remembers the characters? There was George, her lover, near the bridge at the Chicago River: she missed his funeral; [...]
Charley Plays a Tune (version 2)
Crippled with arthritis and Alzheimer’s, in a dark rented room, Charley plays melancholic melodies on a dust filled harmonica he found abandoned on a playground of sand years ago by a handful of children playing on monkey bars. He now goes to the bathroom on occasion, relieving himself takes forever; he feeds the cat when [...]
Gemini
My brother’s been looking at the stars. That’s a UFO, he declares. He’s eighteen to my nine. I believe: He’s bigger than I am and closer to the truth. He goes inside to tell the rest of the clan. I hear him through the kitchen door, back in the living room. Our parents and sisters [...]
Fire
Tonight the boy who tends the pool comes to lock up just as I step from the shower, naked and wet. Between us, a fogged glass door. I know his as the hand that turns the key, but he does not know this body as mine — my shape, ambiguous; skin, unlined. In this hazy [...]
The End of Childhood
She wakens to a hand rocking her shoulder, a muffled word, slips into folds of clothes and follows. She feels the dead space under the sky, and the layer of air lying close to the earth, a blanket of musk left from summer flowers. Between her hands she finds her head, its heavy, leaden weight [...]
The Code of Perpetuity
Tonight is the night of glorious voyages; a perfect prospect for splendid inventions. Give me the opportunity to enlighten my mind by the illumination of our satellite. Put me inside a capsule of time, and show me the secret corridors of your rocket. I’ll speak your language for a brief moment, and I’ll pretend to [...]
Cosmology
The sky pulls you in. You stand on tiptoe like a child. Arranged like birthstone earrings on a card, they’re tarnished. Sirius the dog, Medusa writhing in her headdress of snakes, Orion chasing the flock of doves that later changed to sisters. These strange stories kept you from sleep. The bedside glass remains a collection [...]
Categories
- No categories
