Theme 06: "Bucolia"
Contributors
Jason Ryberg
Enchanted With the Pale
Fiction by Peter Pagano
“They guided me in that small woodland graveyard beneath towering trees to the stone which read, “As I am now so you shall be” at top, followed beneath by my name on the tombstone and ‘As you are now, so I once was’…”
The Shape of a Grenade
by Joshua Lillie
“When you step by a millipede too closely it spirals / into a button for defense. That’s what this one did.”
Among the Dandelions
Poetry by Jonathan Chernoff
“Here, among the dandelions, I take my stand, / and with a sharp stick uproot the corruption.”
Four Poems
Poetry by Kenneth Pobo
“I often take my phone camera / when I do my morning / garden stroll. Flowers / are fleeting—I want / to remember as many / as I can.”
Three Poems
Poetry by J.M. Medeiros
“On some days, she hears echoes of her children’s laughter as they searched in vain for the five-dollar bill their father promised was hidden under one of those stones.”
What the Tree Teaches: A Quiet Instruction
Poetry by Pradeep R. Varadwaj
“Beneath old limbs, we pause, / breath caught like a moth in a web, / asking what memory offers— / from patience that asks nothing, / from shade that shelters all.”
Phases
Poetry by Sean Foster
“to become a vase / to hold all your wild / flowers / blue lupine, pepper and salt, columbine / in the spring.”
Nukazuke
CNF by Zary Fekete
“When the pickles are ready, they are sliced simply. No garnish. They accompany rice. They sit to the side. They sharpen everything else. Sour, salty, alive. They wake the mouth without demanding attention.”
Three Poems
Poetry by Sharon Hoffman
“Rounded form, attractively recurved, extravagantly ruffled. / An apricot blush on the face of the flower. / Yellow halo. Striking chartreuse throat. / Lavender mid-ribs. Bold ruby heart.”
Two Poems
Poetry by Angela Arnold
“the trunk of heaven / and the yield of branches / the too ready fruit / being it all the way”
Bucolic Lover
by Rachel Turney
“I am dancing with cows. / Surrendered to the night /filled with stars. / Pulling peaches from verdant trees. / Grooming difficult horses.”
returning home
Poetry by Dee P. R. Kay
“the sun set on the Sierra del Carmen / blazing like a funeral pyre / the Rio Grande a watery grave”
Two Poems
Poetry by David Anson Lee
“Juniper shadows stretch / longer than the day deserves. / Sage releases its medicine / under the pressure of boots.”
Six Poems
Poetry by Jason Ryberg
“I got galaxies / of stars and crickets, baby, / stars and crickets.”