Emily Toder is the author of the chapbook Brushes with (Tarpaulin Sky, 2010). Her work has appeared in various journals, among them jubilat, Sixth Finch, New Ohio Review, and The Rialto, and her translation of Edgar Bayley’s short fiction is due out this fall from Clockroot Books. She lives in Northampton, Mass., where she runs the small Nor By Press.
From I Hear a Boat:
The Beetle
Because I have no judgment
seasonless leaves
stick to my heels
and when I go up hills
the heels leave leaves on the hills
For I have no judgment;
some bugs I like
some bugs I don’t like
like all beings
Like all beings
I compel myself to move
or something foreign
compels me
I later thank
Joan Fleming‘s work has appeared in various journals, among them Best New Zealand Poems, Sport, JAAM, and Turbine. She lives in Golden Bay where she tutors creative writing for Massey University and works nights in a café. She also teaches poetry to children at the local primary schools, and sometimes makes short films.
From Two Dreams in which Things Are Taken:
Lake
A lake of foster children hold hands in her mind. But sometimes they are swimming, so all she can see is their backs, their white backs like the dark-lake creatures you can’t see and so are certain they’re there. This is the mind she will give birth with. The children must be still, and stand up from the lake streaming and changing before she can ask, what’s your favourite colour? Did you brush against the weeds? What’s it like being invisible? Have you come far? What did you see?
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