The heart is a broken record, a botched
detour, a scallywag, a scab.
Mourning does not rescue or provide an exit.
The slender apple boughs arch and fiddle
in the light wind. Clouds are deep
groans, too close to the sorrow, too far
from the feckless sun. April greens
struggle against the leaden grays.
I only have false gods but in a momentary
trick of light, I see the shape
of a red petal, a dogwood leaf, the rising
shoots of lilies of the valley,
and feel myself rooted in the spring mud.
Published in Cider Press Review, Volume 22, Issue 1.
Mercedes Lawry has published poetry in such journals as Poetry, Nimrod, and Prairie Schooner. She’s published three chapbooks, the latest, “In The Early Garden With Reason” was selected by Molly Peacock for the 2018 WaterSedge Chapbook Contest. Her full manuscript “Small Measures” is forthcoming from Twelve Winters Press. She’s also published short fiction and stories and poems for children.
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Judith Hoyer’s 2017 chapbook “Bits and Pieces Set Aside” was nominated for a Massachusetts Book Award by the publisher of Finishing Line Press. Her recent poems appear in or are forthcoming from CALYX Journal, Southwest Review, The Examined Life, The Moth Magazine (Irish) and The Worcester Review.
Charles Wyatt is the author of two collections of short fiction, a novella, and two poetry chapbooks. He holds degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music, The Philadelphia Musical Academy, and Warren Wilson College. He presently teaches for UCLA Extension and in the Low Residency MFA Program of the University of Nebraska. Before devoting himself exclusively to writing and teaching, he was principal flutist of the Nashville Symphony for 25 years.