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  • Issue 23 Spring 2022
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  • Issue #24 Fall 2022
    • Issue #24 Art Fall 2022 >
      • Marsha Solomon Fall 2022
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    • Issue #24 Poetry Fall 2022 >
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      • e Fall 2022
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    • Issue #25 Art Spring 2023 >
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    • Issue #25 Poetry Spring 2023 >
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      • Dennis Hinrichsen ​Spring 2023
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      • E.W.I. Johnson ​Spring 2023
      • Ashley Kunsa ​Spring 2023
      • Susanna Lang ​Spring 2023
      • James Fujinami Moore Spring 2023
      • Matthew Murrey Spring 2023
      • Pablo Otavalo Spring 2023
      • Heather Qin ​Spring 2023
      • Wesley Sexton ​Spring 2023
      • Ashish Singh ​Spring 2023
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      • Sydney Vogl ​Spring 2023
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      • Andrew Wells Spring 2023
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    • Issue #25 Fiction Spring 2023 >
      • Eleonora Balsano Spring 2023
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      • Daniel Deisinger Spring 2023
      • CL Glanzing Spring 2023
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    • Issue #25 Nonfiction Spring 2023 >
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Virginia Smith

[glass violin]

a cento using lines from Wisława Szymborska

          I want a glass violin
crafted from a world too naked,
                              too embraced,

too lost in the stretch of grave
up to its blue skull, to see music

precise as a beetle that lies on the path
through wheat grass and mint,
three pairs of legs folded neatly on its belly.

Earth eats and breathes air, and sleeps,
clothed in skin, and blood just beneath,
and people who live with practical claws,

a failing of infant fingernails, not knowing
that bell ropes, like human hair, turn gray.

          Mirrors here
are cruel and smooth as asphalt: all of us

fit neatly inside the empty envelope
propped against a cup by the suicide’s bed.

Questions: under what conditions do you dream
of the dead? What do they hold in their hands?
And in their eyes, what do you see? Be specific.

Statistics: of all loves, mention only marriages;
of all children, only those who were born;

from each hundred, those not to be taken
          ​lightly: forty and four.

In the garden, someone digs up a rusted
argument from beneath a bush,

someone crouches under a bench,
pretending to be a wolf,
just like the growling we call a dog.

As if only a room away, the world
sings and combs her hair, which still grows.
​

[witches broom]

                                          
A moth large as a house alights,
feet barely brushing shingles,

its new-dried green the exact
color of summers one never expects
          to see again.

I want more than you
offer, something austere –

​slight lamp-sway through woods,
a red-hooded jacket worn,

adored years ago that casts
a glow, panes loosening the wind:

          come in     come in.
Am I beautiful yet? Be careful

of what you are willing to do
without: children covered in
                                 cobwebs,

windows that hang in air,
a forest of candied cottages,

pale animals caught in a fell
of bluets and witches broom.
                              Each season

built this wall of bones, your body
rushing away from the names
​                              I gave you.

Cracks in the plaster become
a fascination, as when a crazing

of bare oak branches against
night skies become openings,

an escape from the predatory
eyes trapped in moth wings

that warn I am not what I seem
and no one will thank me for it.

​

[thank you for your submission]


While there is much to admire here,

the character you’ve fashioned
from me to fit your self-titled tome

feels strangely unformed for such
an inherently endearing figure.

Also, there is a frustrating lack
of dialogue between her person-

ality and any other,
most noticeably your own.

Due to the constant strain
and pinch of the role,

I regret to inform you that I
will no longer be inhabiting it.

As for the sketch you’ve offered
for my own (tentatively

planned) epic-length tale,
after careful deliberation,

it’s been decided
to cut your part entirely.

Best of luck placing it elsewhere. 


 

--
Virginia Smith received her MFA in Creative Writing from Northwestern University. Her poems have appeared most recently, or are forthcoming, in Denver Quarterly, Lily Review, Moria, and Southern Poetry Review.

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  • Home
  • About
    • Our Story
    • Masthead
  • Submit
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Submit Here
  • Features
  • Interviews
  • Book Reviews
  • Previous Issues
  • Blog
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  • 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
  • Issue #24 Fall 2022
    • Issue #24 Art Fall 2022 >
      • Marsha Solomon Fall 2022
      • Edward Lee Fall 2022
      • Harryette Mullen Fall 2022
      • Jezzelle Kellam Fall 2022
      • Irina Greciuhina Fall 2022
      • Natalie Christensen Fall 2022
      • Mark Yale Harris Fall 2022
      • Amy Nelder Fall 2022
      • Bette Ridgeway Fall 2022
      • Ursula Sokolowska Fall 2022
    • Issue #24 Poetry Fall 2022 >
      • William Stobb Fall 2022
      • e Fall 2022
      • Stefanie Kirby Fall 2022
      • Lisa Ampleman Fall 2022
      • Will Cordeiro Fall 2022
      • Jesica Davis Fall 2022
      • Peter O'Donovan Fall 2022
      • Mackenzie Carignan Fall 2022
      • Jason Fraley Fall 2022
      • Barbara Saunier Fall 2022
      • Chad Weeden Fall 2022
      • Nick Rattner Fall 2022
      • Cynthia Schwartzberg Edlow Fall 2022
      • Summer J. Hart Fall 2022
      • Daniel Suá​rez Fall 2022
      • Sara Kearns Fall 2022
      • Millicent Borges Accardi Fall 2022
      • Liz Robbins Fall 2022
      • john compton Fall 2022
      • Esther Sadoff Fall 2022
      • Whitney Koo Fall 2022
      • W. J. Lofton Fall 2022
      • Rachel Reynolds Fall 2022
      • Kimberly Ann Priest Fall 2022
      • Annie Przypyszny Fall 2022
      • Konstantin Kulakov Fall 2022
      • Nellie Cox Fall 2022
      • Jennifer Martelli Fall 2022
      • SM Stubbs Fall 2022
      • Joshua Bird Fall 2022
    • Issue #24 Fiction Fall 2022 >
      • Otis Fuqua Fall 2022
      • Hannah Harlow Fall 2022
      • Natalia Nebel Fall 2022
      • Kate Maxwell Fall 2022
      • Helena Pantsis Fall 2022
    • Issue #24 Nonfiction Fall 2022 >
      • Courtney Ludwick Fall 2022
      • Anna Oberg Fall 2022
      • Acadia Currah Fall 2022
  • Issue #25 Spring 2023
    • Issue #25 Art Spring 2023 >
      • David Carter Spring 2023
      • Annabel Jung Spring 2023
      • Ryota Matsumoto Spring 2023
      • Leah Oates Spring 2023
      • Eve Ozer Spring 2023
      • Emily Rankin Spring 2023
      • Esther Yeon Spring 2023
    • Issue #25 Poetry Spring 2023 >
      • Emma Bolden Spring 2023
      • Ronda Piszk Broatch Spring 2023
      • M. Cynthia Cheung Spring 2023
      • Flower Conroy Spring 2023
      • Jill Crammond Spring 2023
      • Sandra Crouch Spring 2023
      • Satya Dash Spring 2023
      • Rita Feinstein Spring 2023
      • Dan Fliegel Spring 2023
      • Lisa Higgs ​Spring 2023
      • Dennis Hinrichsen ​Spring 2023
      • Mara Jebsen ​Spring 2023
      • Abriana Jetté ​Spring 2023
      • Letitia Jiju ​Spring 2023
      • E.W.I. Johnson ​Spring 2023
      • Ashley Kunsa ​Spring 2023
      • Susanna Lang ​Spring 2023
      • James Fujinami Moore Spring 2023
      • Matthew Murrey Spring 2023
      • Pablo Otavalo Spring 2023
      • Heather Qin ​Spring 2023
      • Wesley Sexton ​Spring 2023
      • Ashish Singh ​Spring 2023
      • Sara Sowers-Wills ​Spring 2023
      • Sydney Vogl ​Spring 2023
      • Elinor Ann Walker Spring 2023
      • Andrew Wells Spring 2023
      • Erin Wilson Spring 2023
      • Marina Hope Wilson ​Spring 2023
      • David Wojciechowski Spring 2023
      • Jules Wood Spring 2023
      • Ellen Zhang Spring 2023
      • BJ Zhou Spring 2023
      • Jane Zwart Spring 2023
    • Issue #25 Fiction Spring 2023 >
      • Eleonora Balsano Spring 2023
      • Callie S. Blackstone Spring 2023
      • Daniel Deisinger Spring 2023
      • CL Glanzing Spring 2023
      • Janine Kovac Spring 2023
      • Jeremy T. Wilson Spring 2023
      • Richie Zaborowske Spring 2023
    • Issue #25 Nonfiction Spring 2023 >
      • Kalie Johnson Spring 2023
      • Amanda Roth Spring 2023