Author: Heavy Feather

Three Poems by Paul Chuks

Self-Portrait with Less Anxieties Lord, I want to be Hollywood-cool.That young boy whose father ownsA company—and wills it over toHim at twenty-one.Once—I needed bread—I went to theBlock industry to mold some.Two coins they paid me—finishedafter the economy swallowed itduring my lunch time. Thenext day—I took a knife to mythroat in mistaking myself amartyr for capitalism.…
Like a Drop of Ink in a Downpour, memories of Soviet Russia by Yelena & Galina Lembersky, reviewed by Alexandra Grabbe

After reading Like a Drop of Ink in a Downpour by Yelena & Galina Lembersky, I felt as if I had run the gantlet and stumbled out the other side with bruises all over my body. Why? The authors document the harsh reality of life in the Soviet Union before the end of the Cold…
Simultaneities & Lyric Chemisms, Futurist poetry by Ardengo Soffici, reviewed by Daniel Barbiero

Ardengo Soffici—poet, painter, art critic—only spent a short time as a Futurist, but it was a particularly fruitful time. His initiation into Futurism was unconventional. As critic for the influential Florentine journal La Voce, in spring of 1911 he saw a number of Futurist paintings in an exhibition at La Mostra d’Arte Libera in Milan.…
Side A Fiction: “In Pictures” by J.T. Price

In Pictures When girls asked who her father was, sometimes Norma Jeane said she didn’t know, and sometimes said she’d only seen him once, in a photo, and sometimes that her father was Clark Gable, the man in the photo. She said she could tell by his moustache, the way he styled his hair, and…
Haunted Passages Poetry: “Registry” by Dane Slutzky

We got married before the disasterand now, whenever something happens,a package shows up on the doorstep. When part of the continent crumbled awayinto the sea, the UPS guy drove byleaving three ceramic mixing bowls. When the trees all caught the root disease,passing it to each other through the fungiin the earth, we got a toaster.…
“Car-X”: An Excerpt from Angela Woodward’s New Novel Ink

“We have extensive accounts, typed out neatly: ‘They took me into a dark room and started hitting me on the head and stomach and legs. I stayed in this room for 5 days, naked, with no clothes.’” Angela Woodward’s novel Ink tells the story of the two women who spend their days doing that neat typing. Sylvia…
“That Poetry Could Be Something Not So Insular”: An Interview with Luke Stromberg by John Wall Berger

Luke Stromberg has lived in Upper Darby, just outside of Philadelphia, his whole life. His poetry has been published in many prestigious journals, and he is finally, at forty years old, releasing his much-anticipated debut collection, The Elephant’s Mouth (Kelsay Books, 2022). Stromberg is well known as a long-time organizer of the West Chester University…
“Remember This When You’re Hungry”: Morgan English Reviews Su Cho’s The Symmetry of Fish

Remember this: “Even a ghost that eats and dies again will have better color.” Su Cho’s The Symmetry of Fish presents myth, story, and language as inseparable from the rituals of eating and preparing food. The speaker lives inside a legend: “I must / cherish this landscape because all the persimmons tumbling down / the…
Haunted Passages: Five Poems by Scott Ferry

this is a poem about the fish on the dock whose mouth gasps a 0 as it tries to breatheand my son stares at it and jumps when it kicks against the wood and he makes his mouth into a 0then closes 0 then closes i say don’t touch it and i don’t say it…