PAUL CARLUCCI A Lament for the Tetrapod I see him through the windshield as I turn down our street. He’s standing on the lawn dressed in shorts and his Harry Potter shirt, staring at the grass, hands in his pockets. The rain is drumming off the car like fistfuls of baby hamsters, and the wipers swish back and forth, making my son look like a character from a flipbook. He waves when I pull into
ORKA COLLECTIVE Mossy Alphabet Mossy Alphabetappeared in CAROUSEL 30 (2013) — buy it here
JANET HEPBURN Somei-Yushino Sakura (flowering cherry tree) I sit beneath a canopy of lace — exquisite, delicate veil of tissue paper circles Translucent white like the faces of porcelain dolls, faintest blush on cheek A warming wind plucks petals loose to float — confetti dots tickle spring-bare arms before frosting the lawn in cherry blossom fondant Somei-Yushino Sakura (flowering cherry tree)appeared in CAROUSEL 30 (2013) — buy it here
KATIE JORDON Waitress I see the same labourers every morning on my wayto work, they use yellow gloves that remind me of something other than yellow gloves. I want to say canaries,but there is nothing sweet or wild about them. I wear black and carry plates, glasses — full or blanked —for most of the day. An occasional, strange hand placed on my hip, the small of my back; their coins in my apron sing
LOUISA HOWEROW Jigsaw Puzzle The kitchen smells of cabbage and quiet.On the table a jigsaw puzzle,the Basilica di San Marcowhose four hundred pieces my mother sortsinto straight edges, corners, colours,greys, blues, blue-greens. I tell her I’ve seen the holy relics,bones of saints, a vial with the blood of Christ “I should have saved mine,” she saysreferring to her left kidney, the cancerous oneshe’s convinced is living healthyin somebody else’s body. I imagine her bringing the
KRISJANIS KAKTINS-GORSLINE 2 Paintings 2 Paintingsappeared in CAROUSEL 29 (2012) — buy it here
EMILY GORDON Exhibits, Reflections 1A ring lies on the bedside table. A gold band, set with a small diamond, an unobtrusive story. It lies almost at the edge of the table, as if at any moment it will skim off the edge of polished wood, a boat sailing over the edge of the world. Beside the ring is a glass half filled with water, tall and rippled so that as I bend down and look
ROBERT DAYTON Nine Fantasy Beards Nine Fantasy Beardsappeared in CAROUSEL 28 (2012) — buy it here
CLAIRE CALDWELL The Summer of Dead Birds 1It was the summer of cold hands.We played bingo in the afternoons,sipping cups of warm beer. It kept the birds out. The bartender slipped us sunflower seedsin packets. They’ll grow in August, she said,fingers flapping. Our mouths too fullto reply. 2The bird didn’t know it was being rescued,the girl said. She hadn’t counted on the hotstruggle between cupped hands,the bird twisting through its brokenness,forgetting it at the sight
AMBER ALBRECHT Garlic & Sapphires in the Mud + Burrow 2 Drawings by Amber Albrechtappeared in CAROUSEL 28 (2012) — buy it here
LAURIE D. GRAHAM The Window Blind Factory Hardshipis the endurance of atrophy. On break outside Derwent High School,now a blind factory cultivating jobs, in the bookless classrooms of industry,gymnasium lifebreath enterprise, entrepreneurial smoke-breaks or not — the women in front of the school have the same devout braids,the same homemade blouses under company windbreakers, the same empty hands. Maybe they’re made to wear uniforms. Blind into blind-slot, factory vinyl,promise of supper and a walk to
NATALIE ZINA WALSCHOTS Supervillains Charybdis wolf-bellied and writhingshe the rock to your whirlpool all bladder all mouthyou vomit seawatereffluence all salt slavering tentacle to gaping mawperfect dinner companions you shatter the vesselshe devours the crew Lex my stately pleasure dome, decree Parasite hunger gone hollow slobber shankedgnaw to marrow swallow Doom 1 grillwork rebuff skin, bitten superconductordata scatters toes to TENS unitmy circuit shortens gauntlet concave vice, blasted infraredtatters tracked heat signaturewhat alloy allows jetpack
LARRY EISENSTEIN Froozenjugens Froozenjugensappeared in CAROUSEL 27 (2011) — buy it here
SANDRA JENSEN Romeo and the Lonely Girl Besides the Sunday dance at the Bunbeg Hotel, the only thing I looked forward to was going to sleep. We lived in the middle-of-nowhere-Donegal, surrounded by barren, treeless hills and sheep with scrapies. Excitement consisted of: Cripply-Wipply passing our house on his daily four-mile hobble to the nearest pub; the wurra-wurra bird scaring the bejesus out of me at night; my hair always smelling of peat smoke; oily
HOWIE TSUI GANGSHI CREEK Gangshi Creekappeared in CAROUSEL 27 (2011) — buy it here
YI-MEI TSIANG We Take Our Children Tobogganing after wrestling with boots and mittsafter packing hot chocolate, teddy grahams, extra socks,after waiting out the held-breath tantrum over zippers. We stand at the top, an impasse, clouds of breathforming a storm over their little woolen-wrapped heads. Their voices needle us, sharp and small — I don’t wanna — enough to draw blood. I hear the whir of a distant bird, air plunging through its struggling wings. Some
VICTOR ROMÃO 3 Works 3 Works by Victor Romãoappeared in CAROUSEL 26 (2010) — buy it here
GREG LAMARCHE Shattered Shatteredappeared in CAROUSEL 26 (2010) — buy it here
JAIME FORSYTHE Lavender Pulse He was in a home, had soft bones, pausedfor days between thoughts, but knew whenevery one of us was born. All those phone calls,triple ring of a rural party line as the entire blockeavesdropped. Never knew privacy. Wallsthinned to curtains; his skin became transparent.Blow-ups of his organs; amplified tune of his heart.The nurse was a man. The nurse was his son, and hisgrandson, and his best friend from high school.The nurse
TIN CAN FOREST 3 Drawings 3 Drawings by Tin Can Forestappeared in CAROUSEL 26 (2010) — buy it here