Rush Hour in the Persistence of Memory

by Alex Starr

Time has not
even started
to take the sky
through gradient
from absence to
navy blue
to cobalt already
slapped
together cars
puttering along
or behind
motorcycles with
women sitting
both legs on one
side as in effigy
or remembrance
of more than one
past century
of echelons
leaving puffs of
smog in their wake
women in pressed
dresses stooping
down to
barely
defined sidewalks
sweeping
dust in any direction
so long as it is
somewhere else
dust scraps the
earliest memories
of the preceding
day the first
side of
histories

Broken Obelisk

by GJ Gillespie

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Alex Starr is a writer in California. Alex’s poems appear in Vallum, Atlas & Alice, Black Sunflowers, Snapdragon Journal, Drunk Monkeys, The Literary Bohemian, Lunch Ticket, and elsewhere. Prior recognitions include the Dorothy Sugarman Prize (Poetry), George Harmon Coxe Award (Fiction), and Barnes Shakespeare Essay Prize from Cornell University.

GJ Gillespie is a collage artist living in a 1928 Tudor Revival farmhouse overlooking Oak Harbor on Whidbey Island (north of Seattle). In addition to natural beauty, he is inspired by art history — especially mid century abstract expressionism. The “Northwest Mystics” who produced haunting images from this region 60 years ago are favorites. Winner of 19 awards, his art has appeared in 56 shows and numerous publications. When he is not making art, he runs his sketchbook company Leda Art Supply.