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  • Issue 22 Fall 2021
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  • Issue 23 Spring 2022
    • Issue #23 Art Spring 2022 >
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      • Michael Passafiume Spring 2022
      • Jeannine Hall Gailey Spring 2022
      • Phil Goldstein Spring 2022
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      • Martha Silano Spring 2022
      • Vismai Rao Spring 2022
      • Anna Laura Reeve Spring 2022
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      • Jami Macarty Spring 2022
      • Sarah A. Rae Spring 2022
      • Brittney Corrigan Spring 2022
      • Callista Buchen Spring 2022
      • Issam Zineh Spring 2022
      • MICHAEL CHANG Spring 2022
      • henry 7. reneau, jr. Spring 2022
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    • Issue #23 Fiction Spring 2022 >
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      • Srinaath Perangur Spring 2022
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Matthew Zapruder​

Ghost Birds


for a long time    
I didn’t see them
at first it was all     
just indeterminate
red and black shapes    
like facts     
about which I have    
mixed feelings
but first with my body    
then my mind
I began to perceive    
faint figures striding
the surface as if   
a child holding
a piece of chalk    
at the last moments    
of day had absently    
over all those numbers    
faces and trains    
allowed her hand    
to trace translucent     
sentient monitor beings    
then the man    
with the green hose
at night mostly
washed them away    
I look at them
like I am looking down    
at my life    
in the middle of it    
they seem without heads    
scarily graceful    
I can see a whole life
of travels and doing    
weave such beings    
like thread strung    
around nails
to make shapes    
which was how
I failed geometry
staring down at what
I could not understand    
the painting says    
as we move    
we draw them    
and when we are gone
they go on to finish    
what we could not    
I call them ghost birds   
if you know
what they really are    
don’t tell me
 

(for the painting “Emmy Lou” by Robert McChesney)

​

Just Deserts


The newspaper said the bank deserved
to pay for its reprehensible transgressions.
 
Even the bankers agreed.
But where to find its giant shadow face?
 
The next feeding isn’t for centuries.
How to force its shadow body?
 
And what about the shareholders 
weeping gently in the alternate boardroom? 
 
Should they have to sell yet another painting? 
Footsteps out in the hall
 
sound gently ominous
like the future at last 
 
had gotten up and begun searching.
In the room with the copier
 
the hum makes me feel 
like the whole building is alive.
 
At night when I should be sleeping
next to my love instead I wander
 
another life where I’m at home
with my television wife.
 
She tells me eat your sorrow.
Those are your just deserts
 
where you must go without water
to beat that dead horse one more time 
 
until it laughs and coughs up 
another monstrously jeweled president.

 





--
Matthew Zapruder is the author of four books of poetry and Why Poetry (Ecco, 2017). An Associate Professor in the MFA at Saint Mary’s College of California, he is also Editor at Large at Wave Books. He lives in Oakland, CA.

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  • Home
  • About
    • Our Story
    • Masthead
  • Submit
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Submit Here
  • Features
  • Interviews
  • Book Reviews
  • Previous Issues
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Issue 22 Fall 2021
    • Issue #22 Art Fall 2021 >
      • Bonnie Severien Fall 2021
      • Camilla Taylor Fall 2021
      • Guilherme Bergamini Fall 2021
      • Emanuela Iorga Fall 2021
    • Issue #22 Poetry Fall 2021 >
      • Maureen Alsop Fall 2021
      • Annah Browning Fall 2021
      • Romana Iorga Fall 2021
      • Natalie Hampton Fall 2021
      • Sherine Gilmour Fall 2021
      • Adam Day Fall 2021
      • Amanda Auchter Fall 2021
      • Adam Tavel Fall 2021
      • Sara Moore Fall 2021
      • Karen Rigby Fall 2021
      • Daniel Zhang Fall 2021
      • Erika Lutzner Fall 2021
      • Kindall Fredricks Fall 2021
      • Cin Salach Fall 2021
      • Andrew Zawacki Fall 2021
      • Micah Ruelle Fall 2021
      • Rachel Stempel Fall 2021
      • Haley Wooning Fall 2021
      • Rikki Santer Fall 2021
      • Evy Shen Fall 2021
      • Suzanne Frischkorn Fall 2021
      • Danielle Rose Fall 2021
      • Eric Burgoyne Fall 2021
      • John Cullen Fall 2021
      • Maureen Seaton Fall 2021
      • Hannah Stephens Fall 2021
    • Issue #22 Nonfiction Fall 2021 >
      • Kevin Grauke Fall 2021
      • Courtney Justus Fall 2021
      • Amy Nicholson Fall 2021
    • Issue #22 Fiction Fall 2021 >
      • Tina Jenkins Bell Fall 2021
      • David Obuchowski Fall 2021
      • Thomas Misuraca Fall 2021
      • Aiden Baker Fall 2021
      • Jenny Magnus Fall 2021
  • Issue 23 Spring 2022
    • Issue #23 Art Spring 2022 >
      • Jonathan Kvassay Spring 2022
      • Karyna McGlynn Spring 2022
      • Andrea Kowch Spring 2022
      • Layla Garcia-Torres Spring 2022
    • Issue #23 Poetry Spring 2022 >
      • Robin Gow Spring 2022
      • T.D. Walker Spring 2022
      • Jen Schalliol Huang Spring 2022
      • Yvonne Zipter Spring 2022
      • Carrie McGath Spring 2022
      • Lupita Eyde-Tucker Spring 2022
      • Susan L. Leary Spring 2022
      • Kate Sweeney Spring 2022
      • Rita Mookerjee Spring 2022
      • Erin Carlyle Spring 2022
      • Cori Bratty-Rudd Spring 2022
      • Jen Karetnick Spring 2022
      • Meghan Sterling Spring 2022
      • Lorelei Bacht Spring 2022
      • Michael Passafiume Spring 2022
      • Jeannine Hall Gailey Spring 2022
      • Phil Goldstein Spring 2022
      • Michael Mingo Spring 2022
      • Angie Macri Spring 2022
      • Martha Silano Spring 2022
      • Vismai Rao Spring 2022
      • Anna Laura Reeve Spring 2022
      • Jenny Irish Spring 2022
      • Marek Kulig Spring 2022
      • Jami Macarty Spring 2022
      • Sarah A. Rae Spring 2022
      • Brittney Corrigan Spring 2022
      • Callista Buchen Spring 2022
      • Issam Zineh Spring 2022
      • MICHAEL CHANG Spring 2022
      • henry 7. reneau, jr. Spring 2022
      • Leah Umansky Spring 2022
      • Cody Beck Spring 2022
      • Danyal Kim Spring 2022
      • Rachel DeWoskin Spring 2022
    • Issue #23 Fiction Spring 2022 >
      • Melissa Boberg Spring 2022
    • Issue #23 Nonfiction Spring 2022 >
      • Srinaath Perangur Spring 2022
      • Audrey T. Carroll Spring 2022