NATURAL HISTORY
by Elisa Gabbert & Kathleen Rooney

Exchanging currency for a bag of leaves,
I lived like the forest people lived—
sweaty, but superior.
Now everybody wants to know
when the rain will start.

 

 

THE TUNNEL
by Tuula Rebhahn

Directly below us, there’s a tunnel full of alphabets and symbols. It starts right under
the house and runs into the neighbor’s property, only of course they can’t see it,
being underground. Only we in the house know about it; we have to be careful what
we bring out.

We go down at night, bring our headlamps and cheese sandwiches in case we get stuck.
The tunnel holds glittery promise: barrels of poetry, buckets of thought. We keep going.
There must be something more, a new way of spelling the word love. The possibility
teases us. It makes us restless in the daytime, knowing it’s down there. The Big Idea.
The adjective of the adverb of the verb. Something not pushed at from the side by a
metaphor, or constructed in the air by allegory. Something solid. A rock of meaning.

 

 

LINCOLN
by Ted Hannon

“You be George Washington and I’ll be Lincoln.” she said.

This is our first date. Moroccan food. Drinks at the Dark Horse. A walk through
a cemetery in Old City.

“Nice stove top hat. It really draws attention to your head.”

She lives with a British guy. But is moving out tomorrow, she says. They officially
get divorced the day after that, she says. They fight all the time, she says.

“In my mind, John Adams will always be the real first president.”
“Don’t you have a play to catch?”
“I don’t know what’s worse. Your gay capris pants or your wooden teeth.”

I want to kiss her, but even in these extenuating circumstances, I can’t stand the
thought of being the other guy.

I am no leader of men.  But she, she will go on to unite a country and free the slaves
and die in the theatre.

 

—

 

Elisa Gabbert is the author of The Self Unstable (forthcoming from Black Ocean in Fall 2013) and The French Exit (Birds LLC, 2010). She blogs at http://thefrenchexit.blogspot.com/.

Kathleen Rooney is a founding editor of Rose Metal Press and the author of six books of poetry and prose, including, most recently, the novel in poems, Robinson Alone (Gold Wake Press, 2012).

Tuula Rebhahn is a writer, cook and farmer based in Eugene, OR. She is currently cycling across the “belly of America” with her partner and blogging at foodcyclesbiketour.blogspot.com

Ted Hannon lives, works, and writes blogs, screenplays, short stories and jokes in Philadelphia.

 

—