Uncomfortable Things
By Poetry Issue 89
e.g. Abolition, Prudence Crandall, the Amistad, Nat Turner, Indian Removal, Female Complaints: First Congregational Church, Lyme, Connecticut, ca. 1816 Even the pulpit Bible was consumed in the fire that turned the meeting-house to ash. An architect planned the new meeting-house, a steeple equipped with a lightning-rod, a belfry, and a golden weathervane; Ionic columns supporting…
Read MoreMeeting-House Fire
By Poetry Issue 89
_________Lyme, Connecticut, 3 July 1815 Nor’easter and calm shine, high tide and neap, combined lives shuttled between births and deaths, from baptisms to funerals, amen. Mehitabel, Uriah, Moses, John. Robert, Elihu, Azanaha, Love. Wakes, marriages, fallings-out and laughter, arguments, broken hearts, betrayals, guilt: thus time shaped a community of faith. Jerusha, Wealthy, Esther, Hepzibah. Moses,…
Read MoreChrist in São Paulo
By Poetry Issue 89
On Christmas Eve while the bells were ringing, I saw Christ walking on a street in São Paulo. He was already a man when he was born, swaddled in his manger with solitude and death. The white cold wind whispered a secret: —Life was brief for men and gods, a sigh of Christ breathed in…
Read MoreThe Clearing
By Poetry Issue 89
What does God want with so many stars and black holes in infinite space? What is God’s plan on rainy nights when the wind blows and topples the flowers? In this dark empire the gift of uncertainty follows me through the forest. Maybe I dreamed the clearing I saw in the trees. Translated from…
Read MoreIn the House of God
By Poetry Issue 89
The child who knelt before the wooden altar painted without passion finishes his prayers _______________ and gets up cramped what shakes the skies? Miserable skies that _______________ spill their dregs while I take refuge under the eaves of God’s house ____________ and that don’t clear up I don’t drink you from the chalice that the…
Read MoreCredo
By Poetry Issue 89
Like prayer __________I come from eternity Why did I have to leave? Above all _________why do I have to go back? It’s really nice here in the countryside An incoherent sentence in this discourse that _________________ goes on without end Blurred parenthesis ________________ between all and nothing Tablet without salvation __________________ faithful reverse whirlwind…
Read MoreThe Madman’s Prayer
By Poetry Issue 89
He shelters in you this man ________________________whom no one knew or everyone forgot —His unknown girlfriend ______________________mirrors ___________________________ the quiet dog This case forgotten by his country _________that called him the Madman Member of the squadron that recovered Maceo’s body _________________________still breathing To guard it here ______________beneath this sun that captures these words —String…
Read MoreEulogy
By Short Story Issue 89
THE CARDIOLOGIST SAID Max Wody’s heart was hard as iron and that’s what killed him. It shouldn’t surprise you that these words offended his wife and three daughters. Two of the girls—really I should call them women—mentioned this in their eulogies. I always knew he was a good man, but to hear what they had…
Read MorePecos Bill
By Short Story Issue 89
August 31, 2005 WHEN SHE CAME TO, Celeste’s head was under the TV stand. The Russian from last night, the good stuff, was nearby, on his side, and empty. No more Mister $3.99, the red, or Mister Andre $4.92, the champagne, either. She pulled herself up onto her stuffed chair and peered through the windows…
Read MoreSome Questions about Politics and the Imagination
By Essay Issue 89
Q WOULD YOU MIND if I asked you some questions about the current political situation, given the upcoming presidential election and turmoil in Europe? A. I do mind, as a matter of fact. I have nothing to say about such matters. They’re far too complex. Not to mention depressing. And crazy-making. Besides, I left politics behind…
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