...Edmund Sandoval © 2014 Edmund Sandoval 2014 Edmund Sandoval As the Water Rose As the water rose, John Barry rose with it. It covered the floor trim, bubbled at the wainscoting, tickled the round dome of the thermo- stat. He sat in his chair, he stood on his table, he went to the second...

...Cameron Barnett © 2017 Cameron Barnett 2017 Cameron Barnett The Drowning Boy’s Guide to Water Remember the strength of chlorine, the indoor pool, swim class clinging to the kickboard then jumping from the ledge into the arms of the smiling white lady, only...

...Laurie Sewall © 2017 Laurie Sewall 2017 Laurie Sewall Stones Skipping Water Cloth of her body, bones her bones, I saw my mother re- enter this earth, appear in her actual torso, real batik sneakers, white socks: a prayer with no question, dream before sleep...

...Matthew Olzmann © 2008 the minnesota review 2008 24 the minnesota review Matthew Olzmann By 2020, Scientists Predict the Earth’s Waters to Rise 10% Because he wanted to keep the North Pole from melting and delay the end...

... prisoners like you, taxi driver, into ghosts. Our techniques are as simple as water and cloth, the locations we bruise. No one else knows you are here. Give us something: tell us names. Tonight, cry something other than Allah. Tell us names tonight. Cry something. Other than Allah...

...Marcus Pactor © 2013 Marcus Pactor 2013 Marcus Pactor Next Time, Merman The merman strolls among us, Fresh out the water, dripping. He sings ocean blues. He votes. His collar hides telltale gills. (Kinda hides. Besides, he’s got water pumps...

...George Ella Lyon © 2016 George Ella Lyon 2016 George Ella Lyon Monday Morning Work Nothing asks me this morning to say it: not wax rolling down a candle someone bought for 20p, not the slop of water over a stone step, not a bunch of beet-weight, and no memories...

...Jeffrey H. MacLachlan © 2013 Jeffrey H. MacLachlan 2013 Jeffrey H. MacLachlan The Vanishing Child I’m leading you to her. Pay attention to what I’m saying. Doesn’t the night sky look like a giant one-way mirror? As a child, we’d go to the planetarium for school trips and create water...

...Cate McLaughlin © 2012 by Virginia Tech 2012 Cate McLaughlin In the Drink for Hart Crane Ankles crossed at the copper faucet he reclines, couched in a white rind of porcelain, a bottle floating serenely in the filmy water above his...

...Miz Hefferman © 2010 by Virginia Tech 2010 Miz Hefferman Drawing a Perfect Circle It’s Tuesday, and my father demands to see the ocean. He needs his shoes. I tell him water is so far, even the thirst in his legs couldn’t carry him there. He closes his eyes and hears waves. He wants...

...Nicomedes Suárez Araúz © 2012 by Virginia Tech 2012 Nicomedes Suárez Araúz English Sauce Mix a little water with mustard, granulated sugar and yolks of sun. Beat well and add a few pounds sterling. Once blended add milk and vinegar, pouring...

.... Because you come to understand, having your life completely around you and in you, that who you are now is simply who you have always been, that the then was never your name, that recognition was just standing in another room across water, that water put into water becomes water, that your name...

..., Jesus walking on water, our feet dancing in blue to fried catfish plate lunch, drive-through daiquiris punch-drunk we pick a fight and hell the night with flaming cane fields, cinders on windshields windows shut, a/c up all year, lock out fear fear it, talk to the dead...

... night, i followed the stars to the bayou and met you in the water, we danced a juba underneath the cypress and mighty oak; say praise for the dark that holds us in disguise, praise the map we know, praise what keeps us here: these rattling bones swaying in exaltation. or, i met you in the water...

...; contaminated well-water; and a small girl in the corner of the livingroom on Christmas morning with her battered babydoll, her brother at the tree, unwrapping a brand new hunting rifle. She escapes for a job as a chef, a...

... forgot exactly where I ended, where the rest began. As if water all around us. As if I were already water I slid that night into their nostrils, into the heave & hollow of their lungs —​ ran every crook, slew, & swerve of them...

...Kimiko Hahn © 2012 by Virginia Tech 2012 Kimiko Hahn The Solitary Adélie She peers into reticent waters near Hut Point and if you’ve ever arranged an internet date at a designated window in the Central Park Zoo you know what she wants. If you’ve taken your little...

...Allison Donohue © 2016 Allison Donohue 2016 Allison Donohue Shipwrecked Waveless water, I don’t deny this canoe is hesitant for two     yet I shall dream of what I do not need; a dog moaning in the anteroom unaware she isn’t alone, I’ll...

... expects no explosion. Out past the end of the last paragraph, such a punctual occurrence would be moot. The wind is stagnant, but still wind. Night sleeps on the horizon. Oil and water are finally one. All fuses are lit, but none are burning. Timers...

...Sarah Johnson © 2012 by Virginia Tech 2012 Sarah Johnson Barometric Weather comes, even to the city. Leaves are rocketing down the alley. My coffeecup holds out for rain, under a new leak. Filtered through packed insulation, the water’s tea-colored. If he comes now, so...