Winter 2019

Cave of Forgotten Dreams

After Werner Herzog Four charcoal horses animate in torchlight, that flickering first projector, sans horsemen, pre-Apocalypse. Red ochre palm print by the cave mouth like a house number, or graffito, preserved by landslide— a human touch kept from human touch for 32,000 years, the terms of ingress sealed like a…

Balance

A frantic sound is coming from the laundry room. I drop the book I’m reading, race in, and open the aging pale-yellow washer that doesn’t know how to stop itself. I redistribute the clothes, shut the lid, and stand watch for a few minutes to make sure it stays balanced.…

Smart House

Maxine knows there’ll be trouble the minute she sees the black bear roaming her front yard, a shadow in the drab morning light. It’s small, a youngster, with a chest blaze, and it munches from an ash bush still laden with late fall berries. Thirty-six years on this earth, in…