becomes the only boat. Lays her body flat, bellying black water that sucks below the dock. Her chest a prow, her face the fixed gaze of a figurehead. Steadied against drift, she shivers as her pale ill family clambers in. Stem and stern, they shift from pain to place, wanting not to spill into oblivion. … Continue reading The Ferry Keeper
by Judith Montgomery
After the barely averted disaster—the plane dropping on stuck wings down the thin cliff of cloud— skewing to the airport’s red homing eye before skid— shudder—stop on concrete— after this don’t we clutch the rail, rush the stairs— don’t we drop to our knees & press shaking palms to dirt—grass—asphalt— & kiss the welcoming ground … Continue reading Happiness
by Judith Montgomery
Judith Montgomery’s poems appear in Prairie Schooner, Cave Wall, and Rattle, among other journals, as well as in several anthologies. Her chapbook, Passion, received the 2000 Oregon Book Award for Poetry; Red Jess (Cherry Grove Collections, 2006) and Pulse & Constellation (Finishing Line Press, 2007) followed. Her second full-length collection, Litany for Wound and Bloom, … Continue reading Judith Montgomery
