From the 2006-2007 Edition

"Beat Konducta" Judy Labuszewski

"Dried Rose" Joshua Kidney

"Rotary" Naomi McNamara

"But Not I" by Brian Guthrie

Go home and write

a page tonight.

And let that page come out of you,

Then, it will be true.

-L. Hughes

 

A machine operator is not often given

The privilege of being heat-injected, as I am,

reading Pound under the roar

of the production floor.

 

The stink of burnt plastic

In a steaming pile on the cold cement.

Still molten,

 

my Eliot in hand:

We are the hollow men

We are the stuffed men

Leaning together

Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!

Alas indeed, but not I.

I’ll scream my defiance from the highest

Steel rafters, while the production floor

continues to roar.

 

Injection molds groan and hiss,

A leech on too many souls,

The forgetfully wise

And wisely forgetful alike.

Face down

And praying to drown

In a mere puddle of oily remembrance,

leaked from a machine.

 

But not I! (with my

Pockets packed full of poems,

Akin to prayer beads.) I found a beat with Kerouac,

And it keeps me moving like a temple drum.

"Untitled Emotion" Tracy Sengillo

"All Is Forgotten When Elk Hunt Elk" Tracy Sengillo