Another to Laura

By Tom Odegard

In your office…
how you’ve bloomed
into a Tao of orchids
putting up a budded stick

Everything You Wanted to Know

It was one of those steamy July days in Minnesota when hair expands to twice its normal size and clothes get damp and sticky right after you put them on. My dad’s stomach cancer surgery had been two months earlier. Now I was driving my folks to see the oncologist in Dad’s prized red Ford pick-up. During the eight short blocks to the clinic, he sat as unmoving as a stone. But his pain

Watercolors

By Caroline Buchanan

Rock Wall

By Monica Woelfel

His hands, mine, grip, our backs bend, arms lift stone and carry. Gnats come close, linger, bite. Knees bend, ache. Can this be who we are together best – two people building a wall of rocks in the woods, arguing over what constitutes a straight line?

The Spatula

By Margaret Payne

Is it worth it, leaving the island? No. Emphatically no. If you can’t find what you need on the island, which means if you can’t find it at the grocery store, the drugstore, the hardware store, the consignment furniture store, the consignment clothing boutique, a yard sale or, better yet, at the Exchange, where even rich people poke around in garbage, you don’t need it. Because I promise

Beauty Marauds

By Monica Woelfel

They have no mercy
as they step in their high-heeled party shoes
into the meadow.
Dark-furred lips gather with expert care

The Anatomist

By Faith Van De Putte

The chest is ajar after the lesson.
Now, alone with the body,
she reaches down and picks up the liver,
as solid as a loaf of rye bread.

Rock Paper Scissors

By Renae Keep

This round, the scissors you could crush
lie elsewhere. The sky flexes, blue.
We’re face to face, palms extended. A hush
descends: paper covers rock. True,