That Year Was Missing Several Months
by Jeanne Morel
Lunch, no roses stumbled up, the sun hot. Hot
sun. The river reverses. “that’s OK—
Keep you busy.” Pillows, dust, French doors
balconies & fat particles of rain.
A stranger summons me at intermission
or did I step out into the lobby to call him?
Rainy season wading muddy water, though
that night a car and air conditioning.
Not a stranger really, for I’d known him
thirty years.
That night the play, the Russian Center
a string of jasmine blossoms dangled
below a portrait of him and the King.
“Their best quality is also their worst,”
the Maryknoll nun always said, of everyone—
breakfast by the empty swimming pool
coffee a sweet bun and a hard-boiled egg.
She thought twice about the semi-quaver
by Jeanne Morel
It was a bold double the bar
tender had brought her—
Swirling the olives in a gin Martini
a bright pink swizzle-stick
for the third time,
she thought twice about the semi-quaver
the ghost notes
noted note
ghost ghosts
note: a ghost note
so, the old lover shows up
during dreams the Day of the Dead
so—? What—?
the ghosts they come
during the ghost month
no?
Image Rehearsal Therapy
by Jeanne Morel and Anthony Warnke
Alone on the off-ramp, the meter up ahead. I park alongside the park. Grey weathered bench. Grizzly Bay. Easy rewards? Slippery stairs to the shore. Slippery semiconductors. Longshoreman. Low tide. Me again. Remember the hotel room with a broken kitchenette. Remember Thursdays. The background noise of war. A racket in the station. A theory of pauses. Ping-ponging. Running out of soap. Second thoughts on your first apartment.
Jeanne Morel is the author of the chapbooks, "I See My Way to Some Partial Results" (Ravenna Press), "Jackpot" (Bottlecap Press), and "That Crossing Is Not Automatic" (Tarpaulin Sky Press). Her poem, “Loss & Other Forms of Death,” was selected by Leila Chatti for the 2021 Fugue Poetry Prize. She holds an MFA from Pacific University and has been nominated for a Pushcart in both poetry and fiction. She lives in Seattle.
Anthony Warnke’s poetry has appeared in Cimarron Review, North American Review, Salt Hill, Sentence, Sixth Finch, and Sugar House Review, among other journals. His chapbook "Super Worth It" was released by Newfound Press. He earned his MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Washington, Seattle. He teaches writing at Green River College and lives in Kent, Washington.