Cloudbank 15

This issue includes new poems and flash fiction from Maya Janson, Mark Terrill, Fred Muratori, Gary Fincke, Nancy Keating, and many others, as well as reviews of No Day at the Beach by John Brehm and Long Voyage Gathering Light by John Kooistra.

PRIZE-WINNING POEM
“Perchakucha Divided by Four” by David James
Note: A Perchakucha presentation is a format that uses 20 slides or images that are displayed for 20 seconds each. 

1. This day is made from hope, light, wind and a blue sky swirling around a few clouds traveling east. The cedars shake up and down, waving to me, so I wave back. I blow a kiss in their direction and they blush, not pink, but a lighter green. I love their smiles.
2. My four-year old grandson, Henry, is having a meltdown because he doesn’t want to go home for dinner. His mother says, “Watch your attitude.” His younger brother, Simon, announces, “I’m watching my attitude.” Then this sweet boy looks up to me, straight-faced, and asks, “What’s an attitude?”
3. It’s hard to believe it was 65 degrees today, March 27. T-shirt weather for Michiganders. But snow is predicted for the weekend, shocking the hell out of the robins. I opened the windows to let spring in. We had some tea and biscuits and then she begged off, you know, buds to create, flowers to make.
4. Smoked two cigars today as I cut wood for shelves in the basement, stained the mailbox for the first time in twenty years. Finished a poem, revised another. Mahi-mahi for dinner with a baked potato. Sometimes I forget where I live and how blessed I am.
5. Half-moon up there, peeking behind wisps of clouds. A train barrels through town, on schedule, its horn echoing off stars. It’s good to be in love after forty years, three kids, six grands, and three parents still walking the earth. This day goes down and, with luck, another will be born into my open arms.

Poets and writers in Cloudbank 15