no small affair that wrings with injured hands to mere the accusations
after ee cummings

I wrecked the rain that wrecks intent, slipping out
from under somewhere terribly deficient, I wept and wept
beyond that narrow jinking, the lewd mascara’s ruin,
and nobody behind the wheel but me, hopelessly impaired—
soddened like the leaves, desperate just to have this moment glistened,
the sex of you I travelled stunningly on these backroads just as gladly
foolish, the nature of such such-ness.

the uterus balloon

in something other than the ether, other than the pink tint of an imagined setting sun, other than the
blue that is the same blue as the sky in an implied city, where the trains lacking distance or defiance
run on time, where the girl (not a woman) holds behind her back a red balloon leaking her emotions,
in the medium of her surroundings—not the landscape of her soul, where a woman (not the girl)
heeds the clouds like airy fingers that untether on a beach from a basket of red flowers, the
animating flow, sailing over ice caps, glazing oceans—tart, rusty, flirting with the cyclic moon,
ballooned by a force she can’t ignore.

About the author:

Born in Tokyo, half Japanese, Kathleen Hellen has always loved the rhythms of Gerard Manley Hopkins and the wisdom of Tu Fu. Her credits include two chapbooks, The Girl Who Loved Mothra and Pentimento, and her award-winning collection Umberto’s Night. Her work has appeared in Ascent, Barrow Street, The Carolina Quarterly, Colorado Review, Four Way Review, jubilat, New American Writing, New Letters, North American Review, Prairie Schooner, The Rumpus, Sewanee Review, Spoon River Poetry Review, Subtropics, The Sycamore Review, Verse Daily, and West Branch, among others. Hellen’s latest poetry collection is The Only Country Was the Color of My Skin.

In the artist’s words:

Christy Mandeville is an award-winning landscape and fine-art photographer based in Saint Petersburg, Florida, United States.

As a critically acclaimed global diverse artist known for her trademark lightning photography, Christy vividly brings to life a story of balance and seeing nature’s fury to embrace its raw beauty and power.

One constant is always balancing the light and the dark. Shooting at night requires leaving the lens open longer to gather light but the intense burst of lightning can easily overwhelm resulting in a completely over-exposed photograph.

Christy patiently waits hours upon hours for nature to provide her with the perfect moments to share with you. Christy invites you to join us and gaze in awe at the Perfect Moments she captures. In a single instance, Christy forever encapsulates nature’s awesome spectacle into a unique story and today she is happy to extend and share those experiences with you.

‘It cannot be taught it has to be felt. It is that single moment where photography becomes the artist’s signature. A moment missed is a moment forever dedicated to the memory of time alone.’ ~ Christy Mandeville (2023)