Married-Married, by Julie Marie Wade

Julie Marie Wade is the author of ten collections of poetry and prose,
most recently Catechism: A Love Story (Noctuary Press, 2016) and SIX:
Poems (Red Hen Press, 2016), selected by C.D. Wright as the winner of the
AROHO/ To the Lighthouse Poetry Prize. Forthcoming in 2018 are her new
poetry collection, Same-Sexy Marriage, and a co-authored collection with
Denise Duhamel, The Unrhymables: Collaborations in Prose. Wade teaches in
the creative writing program at Florida International University in Miami.

About the work:
For a long time, as a woman who makes her life with another woman, I felt
ambivalence toward the institution of marriage. It’s hard to seek to join a club
that has always denied you as a potential member. After the Windsor decision
of 2013, my partner and I were excited by the prospect of national recognition,
social legitimacy at last. We married legally after more than eleven years together.
Coming out for us, already a fraught social ritual, has now been complicated by
marriage, as we are coming out not only as lesbians but as married lesbians--a
fact which is sometimes harder for others to believe or accept than our sexual
orientations. This micro-essay is part of a series of short pieces that addresses
such daily complications.

Eden, by Mitchell Untch

Mitchell Untch’s recent publications include Beloit Poetry Journal; Poet
Lore; North American Review; Confrontation; Nimrod Intl; Natural Bridge; Owen
Wister; Solo Novo; Knockout: Baltimore Review; Lake Effect; The Catamaran
Reader; Grey Sparrow; Illuminations; Tusculum Review; The Tampa Review ;
Mudfish; Painted Bride Quarterly; Meridian; Chattahoochee Review; Tule Review;
and Common Ground, among others.

About the poem:

“Eden” chronicles the dying of my twin brother, the quiet fury of his death, that,
in the end, searches for justification through an accusation of God.

Beneath the Eyelids of Morning, by Lisabelle Tay

Lisabelle Tay taught high school literature in Singapore, where she lives
with her husband. Her work has appeared in Unseen Magazine and My Lot
is a Sky (Math Paper Press).

About the poem:

“Beneath the eyelids of morning” is a 3am prayer, thrown up from the depths of
chronic illness.

Little Matterhorn, by Nicholas Roth

Nicholas Roth’s stories have appeared or are upcoming in The Forge
Literary Magazine, Roanoke Review, Failbetter, Word Riot, Noctua Review, Shooter
Literary Magazine, After the Pause, and Rivet Journal. He lives in Los Angeles.

Name Them, by Christine Robbins

Christine Robbins received an MFA from the Rainier Writing Workshop.
Her poems have appeared in journals including The Georgia Review, Missouri
Review online, New England Review, Poetry Northwest, and Willow Springs. She
was a 2017 finalist for the New England Review Emerging Writers Award.

About the poem:

The title for this poem came to me first, and that almost never happens! I’ve had
slowly progressive trouble with my speech for a few years now, and the idea of
poetic voice has taken on a new urgency for me.

All Fall Down, by Kate Peterson

Kate Peterson’s chapbook Grist won the Floating Bridge Prize in 2016
and was published by Floating Bridge Press. Her work has been published
in Sugar House Review, Glassworks, The Sierra Nevada Review, Rattle, Hawai`i
Pacific Review, and elsewhere. Kate is the director of Eastern Washington
University’s Get Lit! Programs.

About the poem:

I was asked to be a featured reader at last year’s Lilac City Fairytales event in
Spokane, and wrote this piece based on the prompt “weird sisters.” My own sister
had recently survived a serious overdose, and so this poem was about that, and
her struggles with addiction. She celebrated one year of sobriety this fall, so getting
this poem published is very special for both of us.

Glosa: Lemons, by Susan Blackwell Ramsey

Susan Blackwell Ramsey’s work has appeared in such publications as
The Southern Review, Poetry Northwest, Indiana Review and Best American
Poetry 2009; her book, A Mind Like This, won the Prairie Schooner Poetry
Book Prize. She lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

About the poem:

There’s a lot of poetry cross-pollination in Kalamazoo and Diane Seuss’s influence
is deep and wide. From her I learned about the glosa, a Spanish tribute form. I’m
working on a series based on lines from local poets and since Gail Martin has been
my first reader for years and my neighbor for even longer; having this poem in an
issue with work of hers delights me.

Where Plants Go To Die, by Fernando Pérez

Fernando Pérez lives in Seattle and teaches at Bellevue College. His poetry has appeared in The Acentos Review, Huizache, The Suburban Review and others. His first collection of poems is A Song of Dismantling (University of New Mexico Press, 2018.)

About the poem:

The poem came after visiting my mom one day and noticing what some might call
an eyesore of a lawn. I inquired about succulents instead of grass and she said
“plants come here to die.”

Little Katabasis by D. Eric Parkison

D. Eric Parkison earned his MFA at Boston University. His work has most
recently appeared in B O D Y, American Chordata, and the Columbia Review,
among others. He lives, teaches, and writes in Boston, MA.

About the poem:
A landscape rather than an underworld for a journey begun but unending, and
without a hero. One wants to nod to the past in revealing the present. If it has been
done right there is music. It is a part of a manuscript in progress.

A Strange Feeling in a Parking Lot / the Tree, by Raynald Nayler

Raynald Nayler’s work has been published in the Beloit Poetry Journal,
Weave, Sentence, and other journals. A fluent Russian speaker, Raynald
has lived in Central Asia, Russia and the Caucasus for over a decade. He is
currently Press Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Azerbaijan.

About the poem:

I have lived much of my life overseas a Foreign Service Officer, International NGO
worker, and Peace Corps Volunteer. This poem uses material from the travels of
Arab traveler Abu Hamid Al-Andalusi Al-Gharanati in the “Land of Darkness”—
the far North in the twelfth century. The poem combines that material with a true
story of reverse culture shock from a fellow Peace Corps Volunteer. My goal is to
express some of the confusion, wonder, and dismay of the encounter with the alien
and the experience of being an alien abroad, seeing U.S. material culture through
the lens of a total outsider—which is how I often feel when I return to my country.

The Skirt, by Donna Miscolta

Donna Miscolta is the author of the novels, Hola and Goodbye, and When the
de la Cruz Family Danced, and the story collection, Natalie Wood’s Fake Puerto
Rican Accent. Her work has appeared in Cha: An Asian Literary Review and
Connecticut Review, among others. She has been the recipient of numerous
grants, residencies, and awards, including the Bread Loaf/Rona Jaffe
Scholarship for Fiction. She currently lives in Seattle.

from California Building, by Teresa K. Miller

A graduate of the Mills College MFA program and two-time National
Poetry Series finalist, Teresa K. Miller is the author of sped (Sidebrow)
and Forever No Lo (Tarpaulin Sky) as well as co-editor of Food First: Selected
Writings from 40 Years of Movement Building. She lives near Portland, Oregon.

About the poem:

This piece is excerpted from a book-length manuscript titled California Building,
composed of three serial poems reflecting on, among other subjects, the significance
of family lineage and procreation against the backdrop of human-induced
environmental catastrophe. The italicized text comes from Brenda Hillman’s “El
Niño Orgonon” and “Half the Half-Nocturnes.”

An Anti-Lyric, by Devon Miller-Duggan

Devon Miller-Duggan has published poems in Rattle, Shenandoah, Margie,
Christianity and Literature, Gargoyle. She teaches Creative Writing at the
University of Delaware. Her books include Pinning the Bird to the Wall (Tres
Chicas Books, 2008), Neither Prayer, Nor Bird (Finishing Line Press, 2013),
Alphabet Year, (Wipf & Stock, 2017).

About the poem:

The poem’s made of bits and pieces that have been kicking around in my head for
decades, mostly about my first year in grad school (also the first year of marriage
and the first year after my grandfather died). The guy who came up with “pogo
stick” and wrote the sestina with “Apollinaire” as an end word got to be kind of a
big gun, so I might have been right to be impressed.

Monster, by Michael Mercurio

Michael Mercurio is a recent graduate of Lesley University’s low-residency
MFA program. His work has appeared in the Indianapolis Review and poems2go.
He lives in Northampton, MA, with his wife and two Miniature Schnauzers.
He can also be found online at poetmercurio.com.

About the poem:

“Monster” is a loving tribute to the first-born son of my best friends, and a
recognition that everything about our relationship has changed.

Your Life at Apogee and Mine Descending, by Diane K. Martin

Diane K. Martin’s work has appeared in American Poetry Review, Field,
Kenyon Review, Harvard Review, New England Review, and many other
journals and anthologies, including Best New Poets, and has received a Pushcart
Special Mention. Her collection, Conjugated Visits, a National Poetry Series
finalist, was published in 2010 by Dream Horse Press.

About the poem:

I am a late developer and, in my late 60s, am just beginning to feel accomplished—
or know what I want to accomplish—in my work. “Your Life At Apogee and Mine
Descending,” is my rather peevish accompaniment to my pride in my son’s, nieces’,
and nephews’ successes.  “Silent Night” is a description of an oversensitive, introverted teenager that
resembles some version of my past self. (ed. note: "Silent Night" is available in the 2018 Spring issue of Crab Creek Review)