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Front Cover by Will Barnet
The Dream 1990
OIL ON CANVAS 48 X 32 INCHES

Gift of Elena and Will Barnet to the Mead Art Museum, Amherst College

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Volume 50, Issue 4

Encore

Please. Please, young people. Lenson has left the building. He got on his Harley and rode away. Please take your seats. . .our other acts are ready to perform.

But wait. . .the black and cavernous hole fills, a thousand points of starlight. One by one the fireflies click their tails. . .on, off, on, off. The stomping feet, waving palms, the cowbells and dogtags will not be stopped. A drunken yokel calls out, "Free Verse! Free Verse!"

Then silence. Something stirs, an echo perhaps. A phantom presence. Yes .Yes. The voice is unmistakable. And the shades. Moof (the protagonist) begins to wail. O O that ole saxyfelonious raga!

a beautiful thing for free

she widens and deepens
like spiritual quicksand

all our readers got caught in it
and came back speechless

call the exorcist
an uncomprehending man
dazed by years of inexplicable Visa charges
poverty tightens consciousness

it's tough to follow a sea of vomit
administer an aftershock after the shock

a feat to create history
without the museum air or the taxidermal language
making the little details of the phenomenal world really queasy

quiet in the anticipation
halting in its occurrence
a wonderful study in total stillness

its willfully naive embrace of this world
(just what atheists ought to do)

after a close and deadly serious reading
came the verdict

we love your delicious combination of depravity

lushness and
(!) brevity

all our readers got caught in it
and came back speechless

We kid you not. Each of the lines above are part of the Lensonian legend, gleaned from the backstage emailage of just the present issue, and deposited with his usual mastery and irrepressible verve into the inboxes of our MR clan. To quote Jules, who has foresuffered all, Davids "buoyant and life-giving self" sustained us?for eight dark years in a bushland where the music done died. We'll never snatch that pebble from the master's hand.

—The Editors


Entries

poetry

What Is Mine

By Hayan Charara

poetry

O Mother, O Father

By Hayan Charara

nonfiction

Of Phantom Nations

By Jim Hicks

fiction

The Strange Genius of American Men

By Jung H. Yun

fiction

A Better Life

By Michael Maschio

fiction

Person from a War-Ravaged Land

By Coralie del Roble Duchesne

nonfiction

On the Difficulty of Distinguishing between the Buildings Used to Keep the Foodstuffs and Those Associated with the Dead

By Scott Henkle

poetry

The Duplications

By Nicolas Hundley

fiction

Jocelyn

By Andrew Coburn

fiction

Karst

By Lucinda Harrison Coffman

fiction

The White Heart Bar

By Sara Majka

poetry

Before

By Khaled Mattawa

nonfiction

Will Barnet's Series of Paintings "My Father's House"

By Thomas Dumm

poetry

Don Giovanni

By Olivia Clare

fiction

The Oxbow

By Brion Dulac

poetry

Stream-Entering

By Alicia Ostriker

fiction

The Kid with the Ponytail

By Paul Kaidy Barrows

fiction

Plots

By Frances Greathead

poetry

Write My Father from Ukraine

By Jeffrey Perkins

fiction

Carpet Ride

By J.R. Hanson

poetry

Crow

By Joy Manesiotis

fiction

This One Isn't Going to Be Afraid

By Melinda Moustakis

nonfiction

Traffic of Our Stage: Godot Returns to Broadway

By Normand Berlin

poetry

To Market and Back

By F. Daniel Rzicznek

fiction

The Book of Tobin

By Eric Thomas

poetry

My Ophelia

By Miguel Murphy

poetry

victory

By Sonia Greenfield

poetry

[Morning Book: February 25, 2009]

By Yerra Sugarman

fiction

Escape Velocity

By D.M. Gordon

poetry

Alphabet of Snow

By Norman Lock

art

My Father's House

By Will Barnet

Table of Contents


Introduction by The Editors

What Is Mine and O Mother, O Father,
poems by Hayan Charara

Of Phantom Nations, an essay by Jim Hicks

The Strange Genius of American Men,
a story by Jung H. Yun

A Better Life, a story by Michael Maschio

Person from a War-Ravaged Land,
a story by Coralie del Roble Duchesne

On the Diffculty of Distinguishing between
the Buildings Used to Keep the Foodstuffs and Those
Associated with the Dead, an essay by Scott Henkle

The Duplications, a poem by Nicolas Hundley

Jocelyn, a story by Andrew Coburn

Karst, a story by Lucinda Harrison Coffman

The White Heart Bar, a story by Sara Majka

Before, a poem by Khaled Mattawa

Will Barnet, "My Father's House,"
paintings by Will Barnet

Will Barnet's Series of Paintings "My Father's House,"
an essay by Thomas Dumm

Don Giovanni, a poem by Olivia Clare

The Oxbow, a story by Brion Dulac

Stream-Entering, a poem by Alicia Ostriker

The Kid with the Ponytail,
a story by Paul Kaidy Barrows

Plots, a story by Frances Greathead

Write My Father from Ukraine,
a poem by Jeffrey Perkins

Carpet Ride, a story by J.R. Hanson

Crow, a poem by Joy Manesiotis

This One Isn't Going to Be Afraid,
a story by Melinda Moustakis

Traffic of Our Stage: Godot Returns to Broadway,
an essay by Normand Berlin

To Market and Back, a poem by F. Daniel Rzicznek

The Book of Tobin, a story by Eric Thomas

My Ophelia, a poem by Miguel Murphy

victory, a poem by Sonia Greenfield

[Morning Book: February 25, 2009],
a poem by Yerra Sugarman

Escape Velocity, a story by D.M. Gordon

Alphabet of Snow, a poem by Norman Lock

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