Nothing Like the Doll You Learned On, by Jan Wallace, wins the 2019 Cider Press Review Editors’ Prize Book Award
The editors are very pleased to announce that Jan Wallace has won the 2019
He Asks Why I Can’t Get My Mind around Happiness
by Shannon Castleton
Because when I turn to a window, there’s always something in the air,
not falling—a leaf in a current, a wisp of cotton; green finches scissor by
like the pulse on a heart monitor, and you know
it will all drop somewhere. Like tiptoeing a tightrope.
Like: in the months before the retriever died,
he rested his giant head in … Continue Reading ››
Bittersweet Clam, Lightning Whelk
by Emma DePanise
There are more stars in the universe
than grains of sand on Earth, you tell me, lying
on a towel sifting through quartz, calcium
carbonate— skeletons,
shells of life teeming before
my eyes met you. Wind whips
ancient bones
against our faces raw.
Have you ever looked
at sand under a microscope?
See the intricate … Continue Reading ››
A Day Laborer Dreams Away His Drive Home
by Ian Hall
I want to read the love lines
in your blackwatch plaid
and kiss the cracks
in your hard hat
like a snake
tongues the hatchlings
in their coop—an old swing set
dressed in rust and guy-wire.
No I don’t care a bit to change
tonight’s half-baked channel
cat to tenderloin or a toothsome chop
just please let me watch you drink
up the throwaway slushings
of pan lard. … Continue Reading ››