101Feb 28, 2017
Above Albuquerque wind-still the sky holds balloons like lacrima Below inside this temporary room your voice cuts strings no longer tied. David Morgan O’Connor is from a small village on Lake Huron. After many nomadic years, he is based in Albuquerque, where a short story collection progresses. He contributors monthly to; The Review Review and […]
Written by: marathonlitreview on February 28, 2017. 102Feb 28, 2017
Note: Apology Accepted was written in response to the image here, created by Tony Curran. Yeah, that’s myself [sic] in outline, hunched over the screen, black eyemask fashioned from re- gret and the way that autocorrect’s clumsy changes […]
Written by: marathonlitreview on February 28, 2017. 103Feb 28, 2017
Every time I lift the lid on the bin by the stairs to the units above, and upend my basket of recyclables, I hear the voice of my ex-husband’s lover. At a dinner party, months before I learned her real role in our lives, I turned to her amid the laughter and the clinking, and […]
Written by: marathonlitreview on February 28, 2017. 104Feb 28, 2017
Commandment On a West Texas highway between Plainview and Lubbock white text on a black billboard proclaims CONTROL YOUR MIND, OR THE DEVIL WILL! urging passing drivers and passengers to exert self-control, search souls flee from temptation banish impure thoughts refrain from coveting thy neighbor’s truck think righteous thoughts in the service of fear Exploring […]
Written by: marathonlitreview on February 28, 2017. 105Feb 28, 2017
There’s a circle of PETA protesters picketing my castle because I’ve been squirrelnapping woodland creatures to teach them how to vacuum. Somewhere something is happening, if only I could teach this pumpkin to drive a stick. If I sleep for a hundred years, will you kiss me awake? It’s just a short climb up my […]
Written by: marathonlitreview on February 28, 2017. 106Feb 28, 2017
is not what you meant to say when you locked the door behind you; you meant to say wait— look how the irises reveal themselves in the retreating light, their petals glowing in the morning’s full flower moon. Matthew W. Schmeer’s work has appeared in Cream City Review, Natural Bridge, Valparaiso Poetry Review, and […]
Written by: marathonlitreview on February 28, 2017. 107Feb 28, 2017
He was an odd choice for mentor, afflicted with a sort of stoic sadness. Years in that stone hut, surrounded by worldly tomes, provided a backdrop of daunting reminders: earlier days of great academic promise never fully achieved. Instead, real life intervened. He had been married twice, deserted by one, losing the other to illness, […]
Written by: marathonlitreview on February 28, 2017. 108Feb 28, 2017
I thrust my hands into the moving web to spin out each sonic filament. Each must breathe in its own rhythm, be heard by its familiar motifs. Each must rise out of the tangle, sing briefly, fall away to whispers. My fingers feel out strands braided, stretched, fragmented. I know them like the hollows of […]
Written by: marathonlitreview on February 28, 2017. 109Feb 28, 2017
One of the signs of relying on one’s own deeds is the loss of hope when a downfall occurs. — Al The Hikam of Ibn Ibn ‘Ata’illah How to be honest about this? – The mind with its revisionist self, all intention & ego. You want to say something about your heart, the soul, faith […]
Written by: marathonlitreview on February 28, 2017. 110Feb 28, 2017
Nude Male with Echo #136 Each touch, a blast of intention lost in the weather of the moment & I, forged in the decision to be the touch(er) have already ridden the whole river, but you, the touched have just joined me, here, with our feet upon all this water. Nude Male with Echo #137 […]
Written by: marathonlitreview on February 28, 2017.