Category: Poetry
Oksana
by Josie
A blue bike leans against the iron railing. It is bright summertime in Ukraine and the railroad lady tends a garden full to blooming with cucumbers, beetroot, squash she bends over in a frock like livery. Her blue buttoned uniform blossoms from beneath the frock, the cuffs kissed with splashes of dirt kicked up from the motley flower pots. She hears a distant whine— she unties the bow and drapes it on the … Read More Oksana
+ Kansas, Nature, North America, Poetry
Stars & Stripes
by Josie
Stars and stripes & a purple ponytailjiggling up and down on the windingroad fur-lined in Douglas Firs andpocket-bullys straining on chains.
On Judging a Poetry Contest
by Josie
One finger tapping against an illusive white ceramic cuppa something—you don’t know—I’m a mystery, I’m the poetry editor. Illustrious task, these scribbleslaid bare to me, laid out like coffee spilled silent on the plate. Not too late to duck down into hiding, find a proper bunker. Fortunately good poetry chooses me, not I and I know in my heart
Attempting to Make a Point
by Josie
Poetry — what an objectively disagreed upon reality, filled to overflow with such things like fringe combs and metallic tea jugs. Best now to bring it to a boil, to set on the balcony railing and let seep
+ Hawaii, Humor, North America, Poetry
Edgar
by Josie
There can’t possibly be anything in the world more complicated than a sourdough starter. I feed Edgar every 24 hours, sometimes more if he moans and belches a watery black liquid. “Hooch” this is called, and apparently I am to stir it back in and just keep feeding. But Edgar doesn’t like the sun & doesn’t like the pantry & doesn’t like cool water and it must be … Read More Edgar
Kaimana
by Josie
With fistfuls of ocean, I scrubthe soles of my feet— exhausting flakes for the fish food watching the waves lose pieces in a fist fight with the breeze. I got a whole lotta sand to figure things out. The sun will wait for me patiently kissing umbrella cloudstil my blue towel be set near that low wall. Not for the first time do I wonder how long this will last. Harnessing light from … Read More Kaimana
+ Nature, North America, Poetry, TransAm
Wright’s Beach
by Josie
If I am caught hold tight the strings against the seagull’s squalor and tight against the fading light. The children shriek a sandy progress and to my expedite delight the winds that harness heaven’s hurry take these piercing shrieks far from me. Far, far above the landscape the corners of me
