1.

SILVER CHOPSTICKS

we get them every morning in the long breakfast lines. my life is messy with you in it: grasping at gummy duck liver with two sticks. the cafeteria women don’t smile and wash dishes on the floor, crouched near the drain.

2.

DRAGONFLY

dragonflies are the size of my hand in wingspan. the blankets alongside the road are covered with chili peppers. if blood-sun were a color. the air is so hot it takes up space, cancels out other noise. my throat gets dry as a road, the plastered walls shape into an alley. i grow thirsty looking at the payphones, thinking of your voice.

3.

MONSOON

the field is so torrid rain could set it on fire. showers come plunging down from farm to city in a wide curtain, lighter fluid burning the sky why didn’t you come with me to see this

4.

OKWANA

a monsoonal siesta: taxi’s line up in the rain and slur past women covering their faces. beneath the tea-house awning rice workers sit gracefully and fan hours of salt off their skin.

______________________________________________

A native Oregonian, Lori Huskey now lives in Seattle where she works as an arts administrator. She has a BA from San Francisco State University and is finishing her master’s at Portland State University.

Black Heron Press

25 Years of Black Heron Press

DSM changed its headquarters in June. We moved from Charleston, SC to Vashon, an island near Seattle. It’s been a dramatic change — a change filled with pleasant surprises, unique challenges and refreshing experiences. Take for instance Seattle’s literary community. It is large, eclectic and vibrant. Hundreds of authors, dozens of publishers and booksellers call Seattle home. This coming Monday, August 10th, that community will help Black Heron Press celebrate 25 years of book publishing.

(more…)

Look At These Two

It’s one game with two sides. Tonight is an important night for DSM. Let’s look at the number two. No, not like Sesame Street. Like baseball, and literature. Tonight two teams renew their rivalry. It’s a rivalry that never ceases to enthrall us, no matter what the standings say. Like most years, the Yankees and the Red Sox are the top two teams in the game. (The Senior Circuit doesn’t count. Sorry, Dodgers.) And hear this: As a rule, the number one and the number two teams in the AL East usually make the playoffs. (Look it up, we swear.) But the race is far from over. Without further ado, here goes our riff on, Two: the number of Sox employees arrested for steroids. Two: the number of Sox players recently outed for steroids. Two: the number of teams destined for the playoffs. So tonight, as your two noble kinsmen stress over cans of Miller Lite and Mt. Rainier, one will be happy and two will be sad. With an apropos theme of the numero dos, see the story of a jailed Chinese rabble-rouser, and then Douglas Rushkoff’s Life Inc. We’ve got a Times review of Richard II and news of Budd Schulberg’s death, a man who lived to be number one. And so he was. — Andrew Geer

(more…)