Jen McConnell
Jen McConnell’s fiction and poetry have appeared or are forthcoming in Sledgehammer, The Disappointed Housewife, Hindsight, The Louisville Review, What Rough Beast, and others. Her debut collection of short stories, “Welcome, Anybody,” was published by Press 53, and she is currently finishing another. Read more at jenmcconnell.com.
The following work is Copyright © 2021, and owned by Jen McConnell and may not be distributed or reprinted in any form whatsoever without written permission from the author.
The Stocks
Our first year
we flew to see the leaves change.
A romantic interlude in Salem for Halloween.
We laughed as you pretended to lock me in.
Bent over, immobile,
I thought the stocks erotic.
Two years later
in the green embrace of Northern California,
you proposed on a rocky beach,
tying me to you with a slender ring.
Our last year:
ring returned to its velvet box,
stocks broken loose for good.
Previously published in print anthology, Poetry of Salem, 2004
Ralph Culver
Ralph Culver’s poetry, fiction, and critical writing have appeared in many publications in print and online. His new poetry collection *A Passable Man* has just been published by MadHat Press (September 2021) and is available now at madhat-press.com. He lives in South Burlington, Vermont. Visit Ralph on the web here.
The following work is Copyright © 2021, and owned by Ralph Culver and may not be distributed or reprinted in any form whatsoever without written permission from the author.
Field in Winter
I had thought
what a poor thing it was
to have loved and lost
Yet in some part of me
I am wishing him well
the man in your bed tonight
the care of your happiness
now entrusted to him
And the tracks in the snow
They mark
both distances
from and to
The new snow will come
What happens then
any child knows
No evidence of our passing
