I live in the laundry room, this half of it. Scott, Paul's dad, he rigged up a wall, a pre-fab from Home Depot, and Paul and I leaned it in place while he tightened the screws. I like to be helpful.
-Chris Gavaler, "The Hole It Would Leave" in Number 77
Look inward, already the curved / keepsake is growing.
-Ray Amorosi, "About Angels" in Number 77
Finishing all of your sentences /
as if they were questions, he accuses you /
of changing the subject.
-Patrick Moran, "Dopplegangster" in Number 77
No one needs to answer to eternity
-Emmanuel Moses, translated by Marilyn Hacker, "from Preludes and Fugues ..."
I know an echo that wants to change its mind.
-Dara Wier, "Are You Happy?" in Number 77
Johnny flashes diamonds and gold / Frankie knows only what her mother said
-Robert Bense, "River Town Longueurs" in Number 77
I considered myself lucky to notice /
on my walk a mouse ducking like a culprit . . .
-Billy Collins, "Thieves" in Number 77
This is the woman who listened to your report
of every clue Nancy Drew encountered, every
turn in the path of detection. You approached
each retelling as a test. Why?
-Claire Guyton, "The 7 Stages of a Parental Visit" in Number 77
Myra bent down to look into a shell. The
ants each had bits of meat on their backs. They
dropped off the side of the porch into the grass.
-Jane Delury, "Ants" in Number 77
the HMOs even now closing in, /
the border ever receding.
-Kevin Ducey, "W. Benjamin opens for the Plasmatics" in Number 77
Now you hunger / no longer, for the green is all fingers, and the fence / of the body sleeps
-Mark Irwin, "About" in Number 77
Between radius and tumored ulna, /
crepidis softening bone to sponge . . .
-Laurie Clements Lambeth, "Not to Praise" in Number 77
Little evening, I walk across the stone bridge, helloing the river, without thinking
-Melissa Kwasny, "Clairvoyance (Little Evening)" in Number 77
The dead man is of the future, but he will not breathe a word of it.
-Marvin Bell, "The Book of the Dead Man (Kiss Kiss)" in Number 77
Your memory of the dead man is a child's balloon, and where is that off to?
-Marvin Bell, "The Book of the Dead Man (Decomposition)" in Number 77
Greta called acting normal
glossing over the truth. She called it forgetting. I
called it facing reality or moving forward, Greta
said I was living a lie, and so on . . .
-K. F. Enggass, "I Hope To God You Smoke" in Number 77
If there were not a nest of pillows then the / Persian flaw would be a sweeter scald.
-Theodore Worozbyt, "Cavalcade of Stars" in Number 77
We grew from large children into adults. Now halfway back to / children again. Boxes full of the litter of our lives are scattered about. Like / on that day we first opened the door.
-David Shumate, "Moving Away from Home" in Number 77
The robberies started during the hottest time of the year ... The first victims were an Indian family, and all around the wealthier suburbs, other Indians looked up at their houses and wondered ...
-Akshay Ahuja, "The Gates" in Number 77
For a map, we say we used to run fast, /
so fast we had to leave it there.
-John Gallaher, "Everything You Know That Isn't True" in Number 77
Hello to generations that etcetera as we watch.
-Jennifer Militello, "A Dictionary at the Turn of the Millennium" in Number 77
He was also the one who dispensed sugar cubes / of Salk vaccine when the whole world / lined up single-file up and down the block
-Leonard Kress, "Law of Resemblances" in Number 77
Nights on the farm /
eggplants unbutton and sing
-Molly Bashaw, "Every Time I Have Never Been Here Before" in Number 77
As if I know what /
I'm doing, he marries /
me.
-Lucy Anderton, "Not Something To Be Captured . . ." in Number 77
Singular we are / stunning. In horde / we are dense differing / dream.
-Emily Rosko, "Timbered" in Number 77
There are worse things / than music, you tell me, / reaching for the knife / I find I'm holding in my hand.
-G. C. Waldrep, "The Dream of Egypt" in Number 77
Max Donaldson was a waxy, whiskey-logged financier who knew his son not to be stupid, and knew himself to be less stupid than his son. He blamed the mother.
-Tess Wheelwright, " Max Donaldson and His Son" in Number 77
So much is happening in secret, but right before our eyes.
-David Keplinger, "Near the Amphitheater in Gubbio" in Number 77
for some time now it's been / just you / and these goddamn birds.
-Charlie Smith, "Just Now" in Number 77
"Thanks for calling, sweetie," says Russell. "Is
it very hot there?" he begins to ask, but she has
already hung up the phone.
-Christine Byl, "Tell Me Something about Arizona" in Number 77
One dawn /
when I jogged along the towpath by her boat, /
a nightgown waved from splintered ice.
-Henry Hart, "Winter of Discontent, England 1978-79" in Number 77
Christine Byl Tell Me Something about Arizona “Thanks for calling, sweetie,” says Russell. “Is it very hot there?” he begins to ask, but she has already hung up the phone.
K. F. Enggass I Hope To God You Smoke "Greta called acting normal glossing over the truth. She called it forgetting. I called it facing reality or moving forward, Greta said I was living a lie—and so on . . ."
Chris Gavaler The Hole It Would Leave "I live in the laundry room, this half of it . . ."
Poetry
"The dead man is of the future, but he will not breathe a word of it." Marvin Bell Molly Bashaw Billy Collins Dara Wier G. C. Waldrep Emily Rosko Emmanuel Moses translated by Marilyn Hacker Ray Amorosi Melissa Kwasny Mark Irwin Jennifer Militello "Hello to generations that etcetera as we watch."
Cover art by John Dowd. Florida Orange. Oil on linen. 16” x 20”. Courtesy of the artist andThe William-Scott Gallery
Fiction
Tess Wheelwright Max Donaldson and His Son
Jane Delury Ants
Claire Guyton The 7 Stages of a Parental Visit
Akshay Ahuja The Gates
Christine Byl Tell Me Something about Arizona
K. F. Enggass I Hope To God You Smoke
Chris Gavaler The Hole It Would Leave
Poetry
Melissa Kwasny Clairvoyance (Your Word)
Mark Irwin About Helmet
Emily Rosko To Pasture [The world is deceived with ornament] Timbered
Leonard Kress Surplus Law of Resemblances
Jennifer Militello A Dictionary at the Turn of the Millennium A Dictionary of the Garment
Marvin Bell The Book of the Dead Man (Decomposition) The Book of the Dead Man (Kiss Kiss)
Robert Bense River Town Longueurs
G. C. Waldrep The Dream of Egypt
Billy Collins Drawing You from Memory Thieves
David Shumate Seven Essential Fairy Tales Moving Away from Home
John Gallaher Everything You Know That Isn’t True
Dara Wier Bevelled, Windowless, Cruciform Bunkers Lovers at the Crossroads Are You Happy?
Emmanuel Moses de Préludes et fugues, Cycle A from Preludes and Fugues, Cycle A translated by Marilyn Hacker
Ray Amorosi In His Own Acre About Angels Crickets
David Keplinger from “The Crown of Light at Assisi” Near the Amphitheater in Gubbio
Henry Hart Winter of Discontent, England 1978-79 Cell Phone God
Kevin Ducey Berlin’s hanging upside down W. Benjamin opens for the Plasmatics
Patrick Moran Dopplegangster Administranger Vernaculiar
Laurie Clements Lambeth Not to Praise When
Theodore Worozbyt Cavalcade of Stars Identifications
Molly Bashaw Letter to a Farm Every Time I Have Never Been Here Before
Lucy Anderton Not Something To Be Captured, Did You See the Signs? Close Catch
Charlie Smith Just Now One Spell
Melissa Kwasny Clairvoyance (Little Evening)
76
Fiction Elizabeth Oness Protect and Serve "The man walked toward a car that Ramsey thought couldn’t be his . . . a beat-up Volvo with a bumper sticker that said Comfort the disturbed. Disturb the comfortable."
Ron Savage American Daredevil “If you’re breathing, you’re a daredevil.”—Noah Laws after his first public jump.
Dan Pinkerton Law of Averages “I’m in a hurry to get there. I’m just not in any rush to come home.”
Poetry “It is new to be beautiful” Kary Wayson Bob Hicok Sarah Gorham Nance Van Winckel Barbara Claire Freeman Catherine Wing Chard deNiord Kevin Prufer George Eklund Deborah Bogen Allan Peterson “history keeps / handing me its mirrors” All this and more.
Cover art by Angie Renfro. Until Another Day. 2007. Oil on panel. 24” x 16”. Courtesy of the artist and Huff Harrington Fine Art, Ltd.
Table of Contents
Fiction
Elizabeth Oness Protect and Serve
Kelly Luce Amorometer
Dan Pinkerton Law of Averages
Ron Savage American Daredevil
John Kinsella Memorial
Pankaj Challa Reunion
Mary Cross Doing the Loop
Gary Fincke Smart Boy
Poetry
Allan Peterson Such Occurrences
Kevin Prufer Ars Poetica Love Poem
S. E. Smith Introduction to Semaphore But Pilgrims Never Suffered
Kary Wayson The Lives of the Artists
Bob Hicok Errands Aubade with whales
Lauren Barrier Standing on a Candlelit Barn Now a branch,
Wayne Miller The Mind Sliding The Fever
Sarah Gorham Floaters Floating City
Deborah Bogen Asylum
Read Blinn Earth and Sky
George Eklund Climbing the Tallest Pine From the Face of a Painter’s Hour
Michael Chitwood Where I’m Coming From Go in Fear of Abstractions
Barbara Claire Freeman Blindness and Hindsight Heraclitus
Alison Powell On the Desire to Levitate Darling, at the Inn After Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis
Sandra Meek Live Performance
Catherine Wing Self-Portrait Drag Enough
Christopher Howell Bon Voyage The Paradox of Place
Allan Peterson Placemat Exclamation
Tomaz Šalamun Toad Stool “To swim, to be highbred”
Laurie Capps Little Company Confession Twenty-Seven
Chard deNiord Withdrawal The Hand, The Bird
Nance Van Winckel Retablo
75
Fiction Michael P. KardosMediation“He had presented a choice, but there had been no decision to make."
Stacy M. Tintocalis The Tiki King Dad has figured it out: “Burbank isn’t even Apple-Pie America anymore.”
Essay Joelle FraserInspiration Point and the prison town of Susanville “This is what she told me: the boys had been quiet all day.”
Poetry “Start whispering, / someone whispers. It’s all we have.” John Gallaher Ray AmorosiTeresa PfeiferNorman DubieCatie RosemurgyErnest Farrés translated by Lawrence Venuti Hailey LeithauserTheodore WorozbytMaxine ScatesDean YoungSuzanne BuffamAll this and more.
Ray Amorosi In Fear of Leaving My Body Letter From Marcus Aurelius
Norman Dubie Again the Twentieth Century Realism The Magnesia Caesar
Alen Hamza The Old Bridge in Mostar In a Photograph Your Hands Melt
Catie Rosemurgy Neighbor: Miss Peach’s Body Didn’t Turn Out Right Doctor (2): Miss Peach Seeks Treatment at the Rural Health Care Walk-in Clinic
Simeon Berry &3
John Gallaher Anniversaries of Bad Things The House Rhapsody
Theodore Worozbyt Honey, Honey
Dean Young The Fox 53-Year-Old Pinata The Euphoria of Peoria
Ernest Farrés Edward Hopper: Girlie Show, 1941 Edward Hopper: New York Office, 1962 Translated by Lawrence Venuti
Teresa Pfeifer So To Speak: My Vowels Obey A Certain Way Matryoshka
G. C. Waldrep The Audience
Aleš Šteger Slina Saliva Trakulja Tapeworm Translated by Brian Henry
Hailey Leithauser The Conclusion of History Eurydice
Colin Cheney Stroud’s Digest on the Diseases of Birds
Maxine Scates The Future As We Were Talking
Philip Schultz Attention The Reasonable Houses of Osborne Lane
Suzanne Buffam The Solitary Angler Enough If You See It What Is It You See
74
Fiction Randy DeVitaGuarding MaryTri-State Security seeks self-help: “04:00: Mobile patrols suspended.”
Marjorie CelonaThis Is When I Love You the MostBobbie sneaks into Mr. Radcliffe’s office.
Essay Kat MeadsWhat Lies in Closets“The night the Symbionese Liberation Army kidnapped the heiress...” The Patty Hearst tell-all files revisited.
Poetry “Edges pretend that / one thing ends” Gail WronskyKevin DuceyDaneen WardropKevin ClarkEmmanuel Mosestranslated by Marilyn HackerAlbert GoldbarthMarianne BoruchFabio Morábitotranslated by Kathleen SnodgrassDeborah BogenAdrian C. LouisChristopher HowellLeon StokesburyPeter KlineAll this and more.
Cover art by David Ellis. Panel from Flow. 2007. Silver enamel and black gesso on tobacco-stained paper. Courtesy of the artist.
Table of Contents
Fiction
Randy DeVita Guarding Mary
Marjorie Celona This Is When I Love You the Most
Becky Hagenston Midnight, Licorice, Shadow
Miranda Beverly-Whittemore Pertussis
Steven Schwartz Blockage
Essay
Kat Meads What Lies in Closets
Poetry
Gail Wronsky When This Warm Scribe My Hand
Kevin Ducey relativity Cathar Kinks
Daneen Wardrop Tracks, Spread Hare, Saint Rows, Own
Kevin Clark Approaching Days
Seth Abramson Idiot House The Home-field
Michele Glazer Trace
Emmanuel Moses Monsieur Néant en alpiniste miraculé Mr. Nobody As The Last Mountaineer you will not know tu ne connaîtras pas Et je les tuai tous And I Killed Them All translated by Marilyn Hacker
Albert Goldbarth Party 2006
Lance Larsen Owner’s Manual To Jouissance
Hadara Bar-Nadav I Would Have Starved a Gnat The Angle of a Landscape
Marianne Boruch In the hospital parking lot The mosquito brings you blood, it
Michael Robins In This Quiet Shop of Song The Birds of Massachusetts Bay
Rosalynde Vas Dias Silent Defense
Nicolas Hundley The Blood You Let Fathering the Machine
Beth Marzoni After Viewing Cold, Dark Matter: An Exploded View (1991) by Cornelia Parker
Fabio Morábito Cuarteto de Pompeya Pompeii Quartet translated by Kathleen Snodgrass
Deborah Bogen What We Know about Ghost Images Using a Blue Willow Pattern, the Anesthesiologist Explains the Procedure
K. A. Hays Psalm against a Rapture Isaac in the Mosaic at San Vitale
Adrian C. Louis Respite
Jeff Walker Itchy Is As Scratchy Does
Alessandra Lynch “Who mothered you? Silence and grass.” “First, air and light suffuse us—daylily, oriole, dust—"
John M. Anderson Line Drawing: Thurber’s Brother Shoots Him in the Eye with an Arrow Church Vault
Christopher Howell Another Letter to the Soul Marsh
Leon Stokesbury Midway
Peter Kline Unfathomer Insomnia
David Petruzelli Lost Hopper
Gail Wronsky Beneath the Ganges Where it is Dark Hatching in the Eucalyptus Tree Go On, Sure, Why Not
73
Fiction Gary Fincke's The Out-of-Sorts "He copyread sports, but he paid attention to every line of the article about the woman who’d kept police at bay with three poisonous snakes . . ."
Sean Ennis's Dependents The miracle of birth and a pack of stoners: "I met a kid the other day named Solomon and he was on a leash in Wal-Mart."
Amelia Kahaney's five days with The Temp An agency, a mother-of-pearl lighter, half-boots, and the final run for the elevator.
Poetry High degrees of “you are here” precisionBarbara Claire FreemanGeorge EklundKo Un translated by Brother Anthony of Taizé, Young-moo Kim, Gary GachCynthia HogueJames McCorkleBilly CollinsJennifer MilitelloTung-Hui HuEdip Cansever translated by Richard Tillinghast and Julia Clare TillinghastDorothy BarresiAll this and more.
Cover art by Tiffany Chung. White ’n Blue. 2006. Paper collage. 16” x 16”. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: 100 Tonson Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand.
Table of Contents
Fiction
John Tait Halfrica
Sean Ennis Dependents
Susan Perabo A Proper Burial
Amelia Kahaney The Temp
Christine Sneed Clown Testimonies
Gary Fincke The Out-of-Sorts
Poetry
Stacie Leatherman Flotsam
Allison Seay First House Elegy Train Dream Recovery
Young Smith Translation of a Ghalib (from no original text)
Barbara Claire Freeman Lept from the Steeple into the Blood Grass The Closing Bell
George Eklund Essay toward a Credo Essay on a Cold Blue Window
Chard deNiord My Other Body
Bob Hicok Sorta rah, sorta sis boom bah Somewhere in the midst of this, picture a horse
Peter Cooley Day after Tomorrow: Weather Watch Poem Against Poetry
James McCorkle To Those Precincts Crossed Source Code
Ko Un Heavy Snow Yesterday Grave Memories translated by Brother Anthony of Taizé, Young-moo Kim, and Gary Gach
Cynthia Hogue With Kayaks on Bumps River
Karla Kelsey Little Knot Motion and Hinge Little Knot Motion and Hinge
Billy Collins Aubade (detail) Split
F. Daniel Rzicznek Cardinal, Crow Letter, Found under a Floorboard
Sarah Gridley Anatomy of Listening Sunrise with Sea Monsters
David Wagoner The Cherry Tree
Jill Osier Yesterday the Girl with the Sad Half-Moon Mouth Said the North Pole Could Be Anywhere
Iván Oñate Ella She Arte poética The Art of Poetry translated by Steven J. Stewart
Jennifer Militello There’s No Such Thing as a Typical Day A Thorn in the Softest Part of the Hand
Edip Cansever Kirli agustos Dirty August Yangin Fire translated by Richard Tillinghast and Julia Clare Tillinghast
Richard Tillinghast The Face of Sappho
Robert Bense Notions of Exile and Sleep
Bruce Snider At the 2005 Midwest Taxidermy Convention At These Speeds
Dorothy Barresi Arriving Late at the Birthplace of Pentecostalism John Lennon’s Lips
Tung-Hui Hu Specimens under Ice Corrections
Carrie Fountain Embarrassment
Katherine Soniat Anise
John Kinsella Burning Eyes Canto of Wrath and Schadenfreude (Inferno, Fifth Circle, 8)
A. V. Christie Winter Afternoons Theme Park
72
Fiction Luke BlanchardFlash Burn The boiler tank, Nathan Birch, the Work, rifles, and the road dump.
Karen Brown Galatea “I married William in upstate before he turned out to be the Collegetown Creeper.”
Essays Carolyn WalkerChristian Becomes a Blur“‘Christian’s always been a little different,’ I tell Dr. Herbst, and I begin the litany that began in preschool. Resurrect the witches. Damn the bullies. Denounce the guy in my son’s head.”
Lia PurpuraStreet Scene “The eye disarrays the neatest sequence.”
Poetry The Ovidian ruckus and the little engine behind the ears Mark HallidayTomaš Šalamun translated by Brian Henry and the author Kaethe SchwehnMarie Étiennetranslated by Marilyn HackerDara WierH. E. Sayeh translated by Chad Sweeney and Mojdeh MarashiAdrienne SuDean Young All this and more.
Cover art by ECDC. A collaborative painting by the teachers and students of the N. E. Miles Early Childhood Development Center. 2007. Collage of tempera on paper. 9” x 12”.
Table of Contents
Fiction
Melanie Rae Thon Rika, Marika: Love Song for Griffin
Luke Blanchard Flash Burn
Karen Brown Galatea
Geoffrey Becker Another Coyote Story
E. V. Slate A Foothold in the Arabian Sea
Amber Dermont Assembling the Troops
Essays
Richard Katrovas Stalin’s Face
Carolyn Walker Christian Becomes a Blur
Lia Purpura Street Scene
Poetry
Janet Kaplan Marginalia
Tomaz Šalamun Mati in smrt Mother and Death Dokler te noc ne zastekli Until the Night Glazes You translated by Brian Henry and the author
Steve Mueske Queen’s Gambit Accepted The Black Rhino
Marie Étienne Ocean / Emotion translated by Marilyn Hacker
James Haug Reconstruction
Jonas Lerman The First Year of Everything
Sam Reed Summer Thunder, Colorado Plateau
Wayne Miller Hotel Life Poem Slipped between Two Lines by Vallejo
Deborah Bogen bearing on the glory of love Legend
Dara Wier Not Another Anthem 16 Stickers for Peace After Being Asked about Inclinations Regarding Qualifications
H. E. Sayeh Zendegie Life Holl Fright / Fear / Danger Chandin Hezar Omide Bani Aadam A Few Thousand Hopes of the Children of Adam translated by Chad Sweeney and Mojdeh Marashi
Paul Guest My Arms
James Grinwis Mostly I Entertain Ideas and Don’t Act on Them Of Phantoms
Gary Soto The Dime-Store Parakeet
Adrienne Su The Baby Years His Father’s Son
Kaethe Schwehn Pammy and Tanka Me to Tanka In the Convent Tanka Narrates a Slideshow of John the Baptist
Mark Halliday Three Flaws
Jude Nutter Frank O’Hara in Paradise
Ellen Wehle Snow Falling All Morning, I Read the Egyptian “Negative Confession”
Megan Gannon Definition Deep Sea
Dean Young Defib Post-Ovidian Man Overboard
71
Fiction Gary FinckeThe Fierceness of Need Morrelli and Ed on Three Mile Island: “A mushroom cloud? We’re calling in sick.”
Quinn DaltonJimmy the Brain and the Beautiful Aideen
Celeste NgParallel Sam learns without touching.
Essay Nicole WalkerSlip “The house moves down the hill, whole, for a minute.”
Poetry Speaking for the faint echo and the world-floodMarianne BoruchNin Andrews “A poem believes it hears Jesus. / Yes, Jesus!”Chard deNiordSandy TsengCiaran BerryAlbert GoldbarthRené Char translated by Nancy Naomi Carlson“arches forge a fresh supply of wings”Srikanth ReddyWyn CooperAnd many more.
Cover art by Judy Ledgerwood. Glamourpuss. 1997. Oil on canvas. 84” x 96”. Courtesy of the artist and Rhona Hoffman Gallery.
Table of Contents
Fiction
John McNally Love’s Latent Defect
Gary Fincke The Fierceness of Need
Quinn Dalton Jimmy the Brain and the Beautiful Aideen
Celeste Ng Parallel
Erin Flanagan The Only Thing That Can Take You
Essay
Nicole Walker Slip
Poetry
Chris Forhan The Woods
Marianne Boruch A Musical Idea Glenn Gould Breathing The Garden
Ciaran Berry Electrocuting an Elephant Year of the Jackdaw
Albert Goldbarth The Singing Big Piles of Nothing Song: Misplaced
Edward Haworth Hoeppner Saint Ophelia Trees We Thought Were Walking
Baron Wormser Liberation (1986)
Laura Koritz The Ozz Man and the Sea
René Char Lutteurs Combatants Pourquoi la journée vole Why the Day Steals By Chaine Chain Éprise In Love translated by Nancy Naomi Carlson
G. C. Waldrep Appanage
Srikanth Reddy from Voyager
Nathan Hoks Poem Inside the Body
Chris Forhan My Life in Pictures
Nin Andrews The Soldier and the Poem Therapy Jesus Talks to a Poem
Michele Glazer bright things That Would Be Whidbey
Wyn Cooper Road Trip Porlock
James Harms Boundary Rider Lost and Through Lynda (Singing Chet Baker, 1988)
Debra Nystrom Strabismus Ash
Allison Titus Shipbuilding Shepherding
Mark Halperin In Odessa
Lisa Beskin The Suzuki Method
Chard deNiord Coyotes
Amanda Rachelle Warren Something Else in the Snow
Michael Chitwood The Conversion of the Khans
Nance Van Winckel Eat This One Eye Opens
John Mann Mr. Mann Goes to School Already in Progress, Mr. Mann
John Hodgen Girl with Her Tongue Stuck Out Sleep Comes to Mary Todd Lincoln
Sandy Tseng sent After All
Elena Karina Byrne O Mouth Fable After Stendhal: A Concordance on Leaving
