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  April 2007
volume 5 number 1
-table of contents-
 
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  Aderemi Adegbite
  E. Amato
  Kristine Anderson
  G.D. Anderson
  Aurora Antonovic
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  Graham Burchell
  Dana Campbell
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  Karen E. Cole
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  Margarita Engle
  Michael Estabrook
  Timothy Green
  Kenneth Gurney
  John R. Guthrie
  Tom Hamilton
  Ali Hosseiny
  Thea Iberall
  Victor D. Infante
  Marie Lecrivain
  Rick Lupert
  Francis Masat
  Terry McCarty
  Paul McConnell
  Raghab Nepal
  Dave Nordling
  Rita Odeh
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  Marie Rennard
  Bryan Sanders
  Annette Sugden
  tolbert
  r.k. wallace
 
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Paul McConnell
April 2007
   

 

bio


art by jared barbick

    A man emerges from the blue water to squat on the wet sand and draw pictures with his left hand. After twenty years he straightens up and surveys the horizon, positioning himself in the middle of a great drama. The subsequent novel, The Good Same, is never published. The man takes a series of jobs - florist, roofer, cook, clothier, and physiological researcher - while he completes his opus, The Rotten Bridge, A Gypsy Love Story, for which he is currently seeking a publisher. He can be reached occasionally through a thin slit in the ether at macserp@cs.com.

   

 

Revenge

There is something in the air
when she leaves the room
and you let fly
the hem of your dress,
crossing your naked feet under you,
setting your hips into the couch.

Lengthening your neck
with interest,
your back straight,
playing with the hair on your cheek
I have to look away
at a pattern on the wall.
Anywhere but those thin lips of yours,
your eyes full of recent hurt.

I see the last bone
in the small of your back,
dimpling the plaster,
Anywhere but the soft pleats
of your skirt,
the basket flesh of your open thighs
daring me to fill the space between us.

Did I tell you how lousy men were
while I spoke in circles about
your dark garage, my love,
your best friend,
in the next room?

I know you're reaching -
trying to melt the ice
after five months of his fire.
It feels good, I'm sure,
to see a man's face again,
to watch his color rise,
to play his desires with the tiniest
broken bone of your left hand,
the rest of you sealed and determined,
every bit a woman
holding on.

copyright 2006 Paul McConnell