Cosmos

I dug in………………….the universe
the ground…………….compliant like
a man asleep in blue sheets
like blue cosmos with wet roots
thrown forward and peeling down
into the canyon……… obeying

three kinds of
…………………sound strained holding
the rain down

at night……… taking almost nothing
I leave you ……leave the thin-stemmed
flowers that had been lately frosted
and couldn’t be replanted
too hurt to touch

.
.
.

Prism

sweeping the porch
I felt it the rye and salt
dry-roasted
wallop of honey wind

she’s the kind of girl…………………. you miss forever

down at Jerry’s house
the prism
spits out a jukebox hit
maybe your old truck

blooms into
multiple maybe the girls
get drunk and take turns
leaning backward off the roof

while you make the ………………… gesture for restraining yourself

maybe the goose down of your
body comes untucked
.
maybe the sun……………………….. rolls off you like cream

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Montreux Rotholtz is the author of Unmark (Burnside Review Press, 2017), which was selected by Mary Szybist as the winner of the Burnside Review Press Book Award. Her poems appear in Black Warrior Review, Boston Review, Prelude, jubilat, Lana Turner, and elsewhere. She lives in Seattle. Follow her on Twitter at @Rotholtz.



In his drawings, Josephh Pentheroudakis, (whose work, “This way and that,” is pictured) tries to bring out the beauty of lines in all their complex, expressive interactions. Joseph has made the Pacific Northwest his home for the last 26 years, where he has worked developing language software in addition to making art. He currently lives on Herron Island in south Puget Sound in Washington state.