ISSN: 1941-4137
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
Cover
Masthead
Susan Deer Cloud:
Playing Marbles
Dan Nowak:
A Return to the Past After History Failed Me
Katie Hartsock:
The Sun Does Not Rise, We Turn To It
Naomi Glassman:
Miles until Michigan
Michael Keshigian:
Landlord
Andrew Terhune:
The Rabbits of Chicago Wait Only for Me
Mel Sarnese:
Family Reunion
David W. Landrum:
Jugville, USA
Todd Heldt:
The Problem with Memory
Tad Richards:
Mittens
Benjamin Russell:
Picasso's Loaves, 1952 (a photograph by Robert Doisneau)
Richard Lighthouse:
activities during meetings
Ryan A. Bunch:
At the Graveyard
Samuel S. Vargo:
Just a Rainy Night in Georgia
Caitlin Ramsey:
Handy
Kyi May Kaung:
Geese
Steve Klepetar:
Kids Today
Steve Trebellas:
Sweet Dimes
Dan Nowak:
Walking Through a Snow Storm is Like Waiting to Call Yourself
Kathleen Boyle:
O Nonni
Katerina Stoykova-Klemer:
Stones
Susan Deer Cloud:
Asthma
Patty Paine:
salt; or the night you left
Kyi May Kaung:
I come from …
Allan Peterson:
My Math
Maw Shein Win:
throwing sparklers at the green mezzanine
Kim Roberts:
Summer Rain
Samuel S. Vargo:
Fotophone
Janice D. Rubin:
Interstate 5
Patrick Loafman:
An Idiot's Guide to the Blue Cat
Saeed Jones:
Eve on Top
Jean Tupper:
Gisela, my friend …
Michael Spring:
Leaving Belfast
Ryan A. Bunch:
Annual Toads
Katie Hartsock:
Leaving the Forest
Contributors
Volume One Issue Two
An Idiot’s Guide to the Blue Cat
1. Warning
The blue cat is not a dog
he will not shake your hand or fetch sticks or play dead
he doesn't come when he's called
he calls you
speak to him like an only child
praying to a wounded bird
speak to him with rhythm and cadence
yes
language is the only cage he'll freely enter.
2. Blue Cat 101
If the blue cat were a board game
he'd be Trivial Pursuit
if the blue cat had to choose between paper and plastic
he'd ignore the question
if the blue cat had to die for something
he'd still have eight lives to squander foolishly
if the blue cat could be anyone in the entire universe
he'd choose to be himself.
3. Favorite Places the Blue Cat Likes to Hide
On a beach with jellyfish the size of dinner plates
on dinner plates smelling of the sea
in the closet curled on the lap of your favorite jeans
behind the refrigerator droning like a Buddhist
amongst a gang of ravens pecking at stars …
4. Final Advice
If you find a cat
bundled in a cardboard box that once held whisky
on your back stoop in October
then receive him like a covenant
but he is more like smoke than blood
the blue cat might borrow your tongue
he may use a raven bone for a flute
make a drum from your gut
if you feel a fever gripping your mind
and the blue cat seems transparent
hold him up to the sun like a cracked bottle of rum
and marvel at the rainbow vein wriggling on your foot
if the blue cat vanishes and you find yourself
circling the neighborhood
shouting at the night
don't panic
embrace the silence like a son
and when you least expect it
the blue cat will suddenly re-appear
dropping like a coin from a swollen tongue
dancing across a naked page.
Glass: A Journal of Poetry is published by Glass Poetry Press.
All contents © the author.
