71Jun 7, 2018
Time smoothes rainbow hardness Of tree basalt, vermillion jasper, Silvery granite and pale feldspar With the help of humdrum But patient jeweller of tides; Volcano-born, earthquake-quarried, Heat-cracked, wind-carved, Death shapes compact among the rocks; It drifts light as a fractured bone When the tide uncovers, It blinks among the smashed shells, Upset by gulls, bleached by salt and […]
Written by: marathonlitreview on June 7, 2018. 72Jun 7, 2018
John Casquarelli is the author of two full-length collections: On Equilibrium of Song (Overpass Books, 2011) and Lavender (Authorspress, 2014). He is the Chairperson of the Santa Fe chapter (The Santa Fe Poetry Trails) of the New Mexico State Poetry Society (NMSPS). He received his MFA in Creative Writing at Long Island University—Brooklyn. John was […]
Written by: marathonlitreview on June 7, 2018. 73Jun 7, 2018
The kids across the street had daily tasks, Leon’s to sweep the inside stairs, which often he forgot, and we’d sit on our porch, waiting for his mom, waiting for the air to fill with thuds and wails, and in the calm thereafter we’d speculate on marriage, the oddness of pairings – that sturdy fishwife’s […]
Written by: marathonlitreview on June 7, 2018. 74Jun 7, 2018
When I told Dun Dunt that I had fallen in love, he served me cold tapioca. With magic powers. I became a large house. A new family moved into me, opening my doors and windows. Two kids clattered up my stairs. The parents bickered about where to put the venus flytrap. I made a frumpy […]
Written by: marathonlitreview on June 7, 2018. 75Jun 7, 2018
If I try to get everything back, sometimes pure essence of a single flower is all that comes when I call. And sometimes, all I smell is the nothing of fire because flames only smell like whatever they’re consuming. But I keep hearing the slam of the oven door, the scuff of pointed shoes on […]
Written by: marathonlitreview on June 7, 2018. 76Jun 7, 2018
Ten, no, at least a dozen bagpipes groan across the gravel lot outside your window. Snare drums stutter as you grab the bottle and throw open the sash. The weekly crowd – which includes a woman whose right hand holds a vinyl shoe by Velcro straps, whose left guides at the elbow a man wearing […]
Written by: marathonlitreview on June 7, 2018. 77Jun 7, 2018
Recess A cartwheeling script of broken music notes tumbles from the tip of my pen: a row of children swinging their legs, propelling their bodies across monkey bars that flex between margins. Recess is cut short by rain. I blow my whistle & crumple the playground into a ball in my fist. I toss what’s […]
Written by: marathonlitreview on June 7, 2018. 78Mar 21, 2018
Under the tree-filtered sun, it’s Golden Hour and we sit sipping peaches. Gilded haze and sideways light make the finest bouillon. In this cathedral of days, we spin gossamer threads, weave the gold into our tresses. There’s a reason the eve’s last breaths are bullion – to squeeze the bellows of day, an accordion wheezing til […]
Written by: marathonlitreview on March 21, 2018. 79Aug 24, 2017
Sun blasts heat in yellow laughs but someday the sun will explode how all things do when they hold too much. Larger than trees the soft moon floats over the horizon glowing over the ocean bending at the edges. My eyes trace along the curve of the sea at night northern lights shimmer through darkness. […]
Written by: marathonlitreview on August 24, 2017. 80Jul 31, 2017
I’ll hobble into the foothills to stand half-blind in the lilted dark above the draw, looking out over the valley where I was birthed and brought up. Later, in bed, my lover’s finger will circle the bruises on my back, each drummed violently into being— She might compare them to islands or flat blueberries. In […]
Written by: marathonlitreview on July 31, 2017.