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      • Alejandra Hernández ​Spring 2025
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      • JM Huscher Spring 2025
      • Qurrat ul Ain Raza Abbas Spring 2025

Sandra Crouch
​

This is how I answer my mother when she asks
what I'm going to do with my life

​
Green, I tell her, 38 shades.
Chartreuse, is my favorite of course.

I have always loved Viridian, I say.
Sage, Juniper, Fern. She creases her brow.

I say Pistachio. Pickle. Seafoam. Sea.

You always wanted to study the ocean
she says, Yes, follow your heart.

I say Forest, Pine, Pine Needle, Spruce.

Trees are good, she agrees, I studied botany
while I was pregnant with you, it's in your blood.

Like Paris! I exclaim, Caribbean, India, Pakistan,
my eyes glow Celadon in the Darkening Moss of night.

Well, she says, I don't have a passport, but
spread your wings, Shamrock, I will wait here for you.


Thyme passes. I am Harlequin, it is Christmas.

When I move to Los Angeles everything is
Xanadu, Road Sign Green, Green Screen.

Everything is Vivid, Maximum, Lightsaber.

When my father dies suddenly during my first pregnancy
we go home to her. Avocado, I say, placing her hand on my belly,

Spring. Spring Bud. Bottle Green. Her hands fold together
over her face like a Mantis, I stroke her cheek,
​
I say Granny Smith Apple. We are crying together
with smiles on our faces in the Bright Mint of day.
​
My Bitter Lime becomes a Limerick, I write it all down.

​

*                                                      Title is a line from Daniel Liu's poem “Return Home,” in Adroit Journal.


The Museum of Lost Bodies

We found ourselves in an ancient library of light
whose books had folded wings for covers.
I loved the quiet shift that happened—how the air
made gods out of long vowels in my mouth.

It’s how the living carry what is eternal for awhile.
After we die—we weigh twenty-one grams less.
This is the weight of wakefulness, light as
seven hummingbirds.

For whom will we unfold our true names?
If brave enough, or broken enough,
we turn from all that is false
in this tango of leavings and returns.

This is how it happens—let all the walls,
rooms, tables and chairs shrink and crumble,
soften to one smooth horizon—the mica chips of stars
smolder. As though the sky had finally come for you.

This is the journey we are all on.
Moving like a heron flying low
over the water—slip from your dayskin.
There is a place you belong among the names.

(salt moon    penny moon    broken violin moon)
Your hands are full of sky--
--a sheen of green bottleglass.
At night the salt-swell calls in baritone and you come out
in a simple vanishing.



                                                     Braided Cento: Mark Nepo, Things That Join the Sea and the Sky, Sounds True, 2017
                                                                                 Joyce Sidman, What the Heart Knows, Clarion Books, 2013
                                                                                 Jennifer K. Sweeney, Salt Memory, Main Street Rag, 2006

--
Sandra Crouch, MA, is a poet, artist, letterpress printer, and recent transplant to Nashville, Tennessee. Her work has been published in HAD, MER Literary, Rogue Agent, Rust+Moth, SWWIM, West Trestle Review and elsewhere. 



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  • Home
  • About
    • Our Story
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  • Issue #27 Spring 2024
    • Issue #27 Art Spring 2024 >
      • Kristina Erny Spring 2024
      • Luiza Maia Spring 2024
      • Christy Lee Rogers Spring 2024
      • Erika Lynet Salvador Spring 2024
      • Marsha Solomon Spring 2024
    • Issue #27 Poetry Spring 2024 >
      • Terry Belew Spring 2024
      • Dustin Brookshire​ & Diamond Forde Spring 2024 Spring 2024
      • Dustin Brookshire​ & Caridad Moro-Gronlier Spring 2024 Spring 2024
      • Charlie Coleman Spring 2024
      • Isabelle Doyle Spring 2024
      • Reyzl Grace Spring 2024
      • Kelly Gray Spring 2024
      • Meredith Herndon Spring 2024
      • Mina Khan Spring 2024
      • Anoushka Kumar Spring 2024
      • Cate Latimer Spring 2024
      • BEE LB Spring 2024
      • Grace Marie Liu​ Spring 2024
      • Sarah Mills Spring 2024
      • Faisal Mohyuddin 2024
      • Marcus Myers Spring 2024
      • Mike Puican Spring 2024
      • Sarah Sorensen Spring 2024
      • Lynne Thompson Spring 2024
      • Natalie Tombasco Spring 2024
      • Alexandra van de Kamp Spring 2024
      • Donna Vorreyer Spring 2024
    • Fiction #27 Spring 2024 >
      • Bryan Betancur Spring 2024
      • Karen George Spring 2024
      • Raja'a Khalid Spring 2024
      • Riley Manning Spring 2024
      • Adina Polatsek Spring 2024
      • Beth Sherman Spring 2024
    • Nonfiction #27 Spring 2024 >
      • Liza Olson Spring 2024
  • Issue #28 Fall 2024
    • Issue #28 Art Fall 2024 >
      • Eric Calloway Fall 2024
      • Matthew Fertel Fall 2024
      • JooLee Kang Fall 2024
      • Jian Kim Fall 2024
      • Robb Kunz Fall 2024
      • Sean Layh Fall 2024
    • Issue #28 Poetry Fall 2024 >
      • Jodi Balas Fall 2024
      • Clayre Benzadón Fall 2024
      • Catherine Broadwall Fall 2024
      • Sara Burge Fall 2024
      • Judith Chalmer Fall 2024
      • Stephanie Choi Fall 2024
      • Sarah Jack Fall 2024
      • Jen Karetnick Fall 2024
      • Ae Hee Lee Fall 2024
      • Svetlana Litvinchuk Fall 2024
      • Mary Lou Buschi Fall 2024
      • Angie Macri Fall 2024
      • Gary McDowell Fall 2024
      • Sam Moe Fall 2024
      • Camille Newsom Fall 2024
      • Elizabeth O'Connell- Thompson Fall 2024
      • Olatunde Osinaike Fall 2024
      • Jessica Pierce Fall 2024
      • Diane Raptosh Fall 2024
      • Isaac Richards Fall 2024
      • Robyn Schelenz Fall 2024
      • Christopher Shipman Fall 2024
      • Alex Tretbar Fall 2024
      • Ruth Williams Fall 2024
      • Shannon K. Winston Fall 2024
      • Wendy Wisner Fall 2024
      • Anne Gerard Fall 2024
    • Issue #28 Fiction Fall 2024 >
      • J​oe Baumann Fall 2024
      • ​Morganne Howell Fall 2024
      • Matt Paczkowski Fall 2024
      • Ryan Peed Fall 2024
      • Gabriella Pitts Fall 2024
      • James Sullivan Fall 2024
  • Issue #29 Spring 2025
    • Issue #29 Art Spring 2025 >
      • Irina Greciuhina Spring 2025
      • Jesse Howard Spring 2025
      • Paul Simmons Spring 2025
      • Marsha Solomon Spring 2025
      • Elzbieta Zdunek Spring 2025
      • Na Yoon Amelia Cha-Ryu Spring 2025
    • Issue #29 Poetry Spring 2025 >
      • Deborah Bacharach Spring 2025
      • Diego Báez Spring 2025
      • Jaswinder Bolina Spring 2025
      • ​Ash Bowen Spring 2025
      • Christian J. Collier Spring 2025
      • ​Shou Jie Eng Spring 2025
      • Sara Fitzpatrick Spring 2025
      • Matthew Gilbert Spring 2025
      • Tammy C. Greenwood Spring 2025
      • Alejandra Hernández ​Spring 2025
      • Ben Kline ​Spring 2025
      • ​David Moolten Spring 2025
      • ​Tamer Mostafa Spring 2025
      • ​Rongfei Mu Spring 2025
      • Cynthia Neely Spring 2025
      • Pablo Otavalo Spring 2025
      • ​Bleah Patterson Spring 2025
      • ​M.A. Scott Spring 2025
      • ​Liam Strong ​ Spring 2025
      • Alexandra van de Kamp Spring 2025
      • ​Cassandra Whitaker Spring 2025
      • Angelique Zobitz Spring 2025
    • Issue #29 Fiction Spring 2025 >
      • Vanessa Blakeslee Spring 2025
      • K. J. Coyle Spring 2025
      • Meredith MacLeod Davidson Spring 2025
      • Jessica Mosher Spring 2025
    • Issue #29 Nonfiction Spring 2025 >
      • JM Huscher Spring 2025
      • Qurrat ul Ain Raza Abbas Spring 2025