Cloudbank 4 includes poetry and flash fiction by Kurt Brown, B.T. Shaw, Christopher Merrill, Francine Witte, Dan Lewis, Deborah Buchanan, Henry Hughes and others. All That Gorgeous Pitiless Song by Rebecca Foust, God, Seed: Poetry & Art About the Natural World by Rebecca Foust and Lorna Stevens, and Aspects of Robinson: Homage to Weldon Kees by Christopher Buckley are reviewed.
PRIZE WINNING POEM
“Cinderella, later” by Francine Witte
Every midnight, we’d end up
tromping the cobbled streets,
shardy old shoes and pumpkin
guts under my nails. Grab on!
he would yell, as if this time
the spell wouldn’t break. Can’t
we just buy a carriage? I would
say. But that wasn’t the point.
Truth is, he’d gotten hooked
on the magic. Adrenaline pop
of watching the footmen turn
back to mice. Some crazy
addiction to sparkle and poof.
While I just wanted the simple
things, a reedy broom, the honesty
of dust. In time, I got him
to give it up, go to bed early.
But that didn’t stop him from
sneaking out, digging my slipper
out of the trash bin, tiptoeing
past the fireplace and searching
the town for the girl I used to be.
Poets and writers in Cloudbank 4
Tim Applegate
Tim Barnes
Jan Bottiglieri
John Brantingham
Kurt Brown
Deborah Buchanan
Christopher Buckley
Kendra Chica
Christine Chiosi
Margaret Chula
Roger Cowin
Hannah Craig
Anthony DeGregorio
Catherine Fraga
Maynard Freemole
Timothy Geiger
Leanne Grabel
Gale E. Hemmann
Toni Hanner
Henry Hughes
Tim Hunt
Steve Jones
Lawson Fusao Inada
Oz Hopkins Koglin
Dan Lewis
Christopher Merrill
Bob Monson
Catherine Moran
B.Z. Niditch
Paulann Petersen
Stephanie Roush
Ralph Salisbury
Dennis Schmitz
Penelope Scambly Schott
Marvin Shackelford
B.T. Shaw
Colette Tennant
Amanda Turner
Francine Witte
Vincent Wixon
Jake Young
James K. Zimmerman