Category: Poetry

#18: Poetry by D.E. St. John

INCISION The policemen found my friend face up at the river’s edge, in the patterned dark and light of passing clouds. Beyond that, they found ashes from a fire and the outlines of bodies, where men had lain down and slept.   Those men were his friends, not mine. They ate and slept and shat […]

#15: Poetry by Cecil Morris

REDEMPTION When she awoke where she should not have been, the black of sin filled the room and sat on her like the weight of her sobbing five-year-old curled on her for comfort, shaking her with grief so profound that words could not hold it, release it, send it across Lethe and set her free. […]

#13: Poetry by Justin Runge

WALKING THROUGH DRUID CITY You drift, a replica riverboat, through gray fogs of mosquito   abatement into the chamber of commerce, a drunk horse- riding seminar flier flapping to your feet like a toy dog,   and then another, an offer, says will cover in bluegrass.   Christmas cats Easter-egg in the bushes, find their […]

#9: Poetry by Bill Neumire

SOON A HATCH WILL OPEN & A MAN WITH A GUN WILL ASK WHY YOU’RE NOT A MAN Often on your way home, there’s a woman in a lavender blouse carrying groceries, or a taxi driver learning the streets like his convalescing wife’s ribs,  & often school’s letting out its pollen of mouths singing, “I want nothing. I want nothing.” & […]

#7: Poetry by Gary Duehr

WALK / DON’T WALK Poised there at the curb, waiting for the lightTo switch to WALK, it’s fightOr flight, like suspects in a line-up. Fact:There’s something in the actOf queueing that brings out aggression.Just look at them, their faces pinched, standing at attention.One guy is grasping something in his hand—A crumpled sack or rock. Please […]

#4: Poetry by Lenny DellaRocca

SEEING ELVIS Some folks see Jesus in a stormy sky.A woman in Vicksburg, Michigansaw Elvis in a grocery store. The cook at Tammy’s Luncheonettetwirls his finger at his templewhen asked about her.In the late ‘60s,I remember a man who saidJesse Presley replaced his twin—He was Fat Elvis in Vegas,he was the one pumped full of […]

#1: Poetry by Rebecca Pyle

BECAUSE I DID NOT HAVE Because I did not have, I had more,Had a horse who could turn six waysInstead of stare, a house wonderfully cool When all other houses were closed, hot.My clothes had awkwardness guaranteed:No fretting the hem or the edges, whether They were like others’. I was inside them.Why I was free to wander […]

Cobalt Review: Issue 21

And now it’s time…to say… Well, it’s not really goodbye. It’s just the last standard issue of Cobalt Review. With the launch of the Cobalt Weekly comes the conclusion of the issues series that’s been rolling since 2011. Don’t worry, the Baseball Issue will live on. And we’ll keep bringing you books and books and […]