Issue > Poetry
Eva Skrande

Eva Skrande

Eva Skrande’s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Iowa Review, APR, Ploughshares, Clockwise Cat, Prick of the Spindle and others. Her chapbook, The Gates of the Somnambulist was published by Tom Lux's Jeanne Duval Editions, and her book, My Mother's Cuba, was selected by Andrew Hudgins for the River City Poetry Series.

The Soul Shop

It's quaint—don't want to over do the neon
yet not too simple—wood frame and rocker,
which would keep out the lovers of mansions

and pools. So it's just right,
a hint of steeple for the zealots, a needle
and thread among the pines for the imaginative,

wood floor for the ascetics.
And the souls—rows and rows of them
in all sizes, hanging from the racks

a verifiable haberdashery of pros and cons
of red philosophies and blue archetypes
winged top with long skirt

or tank tops and miniskirts for the breezy ones
among the newly-arrived fashions
for the phenomenologically exquisite

or, an entire line of clearance items—
souls with questionable owners
like dictators or a cronopios of fascists.

For those down on their luck,
recyclables, the ones that can't be easily squeezed into,
the ones missing extensions for the wings.

These belonged to the dreamers, children
who died young, lone rangers,
pacifists who swam with angelfish

and promising monks
who placed their orange robes among the violets
simply for beauty's sake.

Poetry

Mark Jay Brewin Jr

Mark Jay Brewin Jr
Santiago de Compostela

Poetry

Catherine Stearns

Catherine Stearns
Snow in August

Poetry

Zebulon Huset

Zebulon Huset
Inconsiderate Acts