The Apostrophe Blog
Snail Mail Review is a literary magazine that is/was print-only—on purpose. Its title tells its story. You submitted via U.S. mail, you got your response as to acceptance or rejection via U.S. mail, and the copy of the journal that had your poem in it arrived by—you guessed it—U.S. mail. I have no idea if these folks are still publishing; they have (as could be expected) no presence on the Internet. They published my poem, “Day of Reckoning” back in Spring of 2012. This is another one of my ditties that has been published but remains uncollected. It was written in the aftermath of the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, a watershed moment in some ways in what we learned (what we already knew/should have known?) about the priorities of the United States when it comes to the poor, the disadvantaged, the other, and often predominantly people of color) in the eyes of our cruel, dominant culture.
Day of Reckoning
In our love poem for hurricanes,
the wind insists on slaughtering
butterflies and spicing the cumulonimbus
chill. Gleaner at dawn, my hands
are your breakfast, your chariot,
a prayer wheel spinning us heavenward,
beyond the reach of the armoire
moored to an ivy of hair. No better
companions, you and me, surrender’s flag
flying, one tarry roof, and our circling
dreams, gulls and water, far as the love-struck
eye can see. As if we will make it past the bell,
two souls keeping time with the comforting
must of grapes, sour where it tickles
our pipes.
The public domain photograph above is of a house in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans crushed and flooded during Hurricane Katrina. It was taken by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2006.
Interests: Reading, writing, not arithmetic. The art and craft of poetry. Photography. Vegetable and flower gardening especially heirloom bulbs and dahlias. Movies in real theatres. Theatre on real stages. Art in real galleries. Crossword puzzles and, of course, Wordle. Singer-songwriters like Aimee Mann and Patti Griffin. All kinds of music especially 1930s jazz. Venice, Italy! The Dude abides.
- Publication News: Petals in the Pan Anthology - April 27, 2024
- Book Review: The Art of Voice by Tony Hoagland - April 19, 2024
- Here Comes the Sun! - April 15, 2024
