William Trowbridge

interviewed by Derek Alger

Originally published on June 3, 2011

William Trowbridge, whose most recent poetry collection, Ship of Fool, was published earlier this year by Red Hen Press, currently teaches in the University of Nebraska low-residency MFA writing program. He is also a Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at Northwest Missouri State where he was co-editor of The Laurel Review, one of the Midwest’s leading literary journals.

In-A-Tension

by Tim Kempf

Originally published on June 1, 2011

Owen turns off the TV and runs upstairs. I hear water running. I look at the ceiling. I look at my watch. I take a few more sips from my cup.

Imprint

by Virginia Fultz

Originally published on June 1, 2011

A silver hair somehow escaped the tidying. Running it through, my fingers remembered: a child’s fingers passing through a silver field, and the old man’s patience then; the silver crest, hat-grooved, glistening above long strides a child must skip or run to; veins through drawn, transparent skin; open-eyed breathless absorption near the end; a frail [...]

Of Women And Rain

by Tom Birner

Originally published on June 1, 2011

He could hear her breath faintly and feel it on his cheek as she slept: the flesh-and-coffee smell, the sweet, approachable susurrus not unlike the violent tranquility, so visceral yet so narcotic, of the morning’s rain; he was drowning in flowers.

Kyla Kyla, Persephone

by Tristen Chang

Originally published on June 1, 2011

I thought maybe she was fooling, but then I tapped my finger on her collarbone and for some reason, right then, I knew something wasn’t right, so I ran and knocked on the nearest door but nobody answered.

Hoard

by Peter Branson

Originally published on June 1, 2011

‘Rise up, O Lord. May thy enemies be scattered and those who hate thee be driven from thy face.’ (Inscription found on a fragmented strip of gold) The independent valuation came in at £3,285,000 That high-pitched wail kicks in, heralds pay-dirt. The shroud of soil removed, it surfaces, loud as a smile above an open [...]

Storehouse

by Boris Tsessarsky

Originally published on June 1, 2011

It didn’t even matter; he was going to fly. He got in his car, turned on the radio to the classical music station and sped home to a bouncy symphony.

The Queen Rides Again

by Amanda Viviani

Originally published on June 1, 2011

He was looking at us both with leery-beery eyes, and then suddenly he was slinging Daisy over his shoulder and running down the length of the porch with her screaming, bellowing like a calf.

You never know what you might see

by Derek Alger

Originally published on June 1, 2011

I stood frozen in the aisle when all of a sudden, a man in jeans with a gun drawn appeared in front of me and another guy, also with gun drawn, came flying over the shelf to my right, knocking canned goods and cardboard boxes all about.

A Languid Passing

by Laura McRae

Originally published on June 1, 2011

Time must have passed languidly once- the smooth uninterrupted stream of sand slipping down the sinuous curve of a cool glass bulb sole mark of its passage drift of grit gradually gathering marking time in its accumulation unnoticed as the tiny mound expanded- the slow diurnal drift of the sun timing days in hours passed [...]