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… without pretension since 1995.
588 Episodes
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Ekphrastic Challenge, August 2021: Editor’s Choice Image: “Rosetta Stone” by Emily Rankin. “Griefsong Heard at Sea” was written by Shannan Mann for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, August 2021, and selected as the Editor’s Choice. [download: PDF / JPG] __________ Shannan … Continue reading →
Selene Frost MIDNIGHT IN THE COVID ICU IN RURAL ALABAMA Where there is pain, the remedy follows: wherever the lowlands are, the water goes. If you want the water of mercy, make yourself low … —Rumi, “The Mathnawi” “How do … Continue reading →
Susan Doble Kaluza LAST TEXT FROM GABBY PETITO No service here, but at least I’m free from the cage bars of my body; remember what I’d blogged in observation of birds, chipmunks fattened on the scraps left in abandoned campsites … Continue reading →
Lance Larsen URINE POEM The last thing the dying do is pee themselves. My paramedic brother explained this to me at my aunt’s funeral. Everyone, he said, Gandhi, Marilyn Monroe, Batman, Catwoman, even James Dean, who died driving his silver … Continue reading →
Ekphrastic Challenge, August 2021: Artist’s Choice Image: “Rosetta Stone” by Emily Rankin. “Oracle” was written by Robert E. Ray for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, August 2021, and selected as the Artist’s Choice. [download: PDF / JPG] __________ Robert E. Ray … Continue reading →
Bonnie Proudfoot SWEET FORGIVENESS All day in temple we listened to the rabbi intone in Hebrew, his voice a dedicated monotone, broken mostly by standing, sitting, then standing, each time my father’s hand on my shoulder, his stomach grumbling next … Continue reading →
Christine Potter MY SISTER’S BIRTHDAY IS THE DAY AFTER 9/11 And on it, twenty years after all that dying, I read about the last person found alive in the rubble of Ground Zero, a woman who still believes an angel … Continue reading →
Bill Glose SASQUATCH Just picture him, eight feet tall, all hair and muscle, able to uncork a head from its body in one swift pop, yet sly enough to hide whenever humans are near. A vegetarian, perhaps, like the rhinoceros, … Continue reading →
Bill Glose SECOND OPINION Jackhammering woodpeckers search bark for insects or sap; yellow-sleeved arms of forsythia wave hello; a girl in pink shorts and pigtails chalks her driveway, a curious tongue peeking out the corner of her mouth—each wonder noticed … Continue reading →
Meredith Mason WAVE MAN The bill sailed through the Senate and House… effectively banning most abortions in the state. —Austin American-Statesman, May 19, 2021 Today I held my son’s hand as we waded into the lake, strong wind kicking up … Continue reading →
Wyn Cooper SMOKE 1 The lens that zooms in’s out of focus, no discernable shapes, just shades of colors that waver and pulse until an image is half-disclosed, then revolved in its frame, then revealed: a beating heart suspended … Continue reading →
Jennifer Reeser A HOMELESS TRAVELING STATESMAN You near and wave the wan evacuees enough to get them back to Jackson Square with bellies full of bagels and cream cheese. The sweat-soaked husband can’t return your stare, their compact packed to … Continue reading →
Susan Browne STRAWBERRY When I got my period, there wasn’t any sweetness in sitting on the toilet waiting for my mother to return from the store with the white rowboat I’d have to wear between my legs once a month … Continue reading →
Gil Arzola THE DEATH OF A MIGRANT WORKER My father died in the bathtub, his head banging against the stainless-steel handles. The blood from his head—useless now—poured out, slow as thick soup. It was no concern of his. His life … Continue reading →
Frank Beltrano SEGMENTS OF MEMORY If I googled hard and long I could probably find the poem Tim from Rattle liked so much about the smell of a peeled orange filling a whole room filling one’s senses but maybe it’s … Continue reading →
Michael Meyerhofer GIANT TORTOISE FILMED ATTACKING AND EATING BABY BIRD I still remember reading how sailors used to flip giant tortoises onto their shells and stack them like living TV dinners in their dank ship-bellies for weeks, months, butchered as … Continue reading →
Kandala Singh LETTER FROM DELHI TO KABUL My sister, I have spent all day looking for those jhumkas, heavy with silver. I know you like them light, but heavy is traditional, and I wanted you to have the best, you … Continue reading →
Sarah Wheeler THE WILD My mother lives in a little yellow cottage that rests in the tall shadow of Grandfather Mountain. At night, she smears peanut butter onto pine cones and sets them out on the porch, leaving them for … Continue reading →
Dave Bonta WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS imperial sunset my shadow waving back one by one the stars of generals on the evening news telling us it’s morning giving air support to ghost soldiers what better hell have we bombed into existence moon … Continue reading →
Meghan Sterling AFGHANISTAN IS YOUR FAULT and also my fault, the way I pretend the world isn’t happening, organizing my closet by color, by season, touching the soft fabrics instead of reading the news. The way I’m back at my … Continue reading →
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