Thin CQ Logo

Pushcart Nominees

UNTITLED

 

In the same year that
time came to our house
the mapmaker returned

to my dreams and

if I called him
it was in a dark language
of animal faces.

Solitary before

bridges made of
the 4 a.m. rain.
Or in temporary

pairs while light

falls on hollow trees.
We spoke once and I
showed you this despair.

Beneath the surface

fish turned gold in
black water and
swam through

folded paper.

 

                                        Rachel Blum
                                        Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

CHAIN REACTION, FUKUSHIMA

 

If they find the canary
in the coal mine
dead—
trouble ahead.
Massive die-off
of starfish on west coast,
can this point a finger
further west
where the ocean heaved
four years ago
breaching the sea wall,
spilling the cauldron?
Atomic heat became the drill tip—
went deep into the earth.
Poisoned water now flows to
the great Pacific,
a third of all seas,
hundreds of tons a day without end.
When does the food chain break
and drop us
face skyward
hands clutched

to our knees?

 

                                        Bruce Gallie
                                        Rancho Cucamonga, California

Page 5 of 5