October 2020 | poetry
From time
immemorial
we’ve pressed them
into clay,
or stone,
a coarse brush
of ochre
on cave walls,
engravings
on sarcophagi
and on forgotten
stelae
consumed
by the greedy
jungle;
they’ve flowed
from tributaries
of indigo
on the odd leaf
of skin,
or pulp,
from feathered
quills,
or styli
of steel:
enough pages
to fill the oceans,
letters raised
on the road
rash of billboards,
a forest of graffiti:
the legacy
of pictographs
and glyphs,
cursive and kanji,
cuneiform sagas
and the enigmatic
runes,
Sanskrit scriptures
that whisper across
millennia,
the Aleph
and the Roman
dispersed
through the staccato
music of keys
that sing
through a conduit
of light,
engulfs
the world
to convey
a mere
shadow
of meaning.
Robert René Galván
Robert René Galván, born in San Antonio, resides in New York City where he works as a professional musician and poet. His last collection of poems is entitled, Meteors, published by Lux Nova Press. His poetry was recently featured in Adelaide Literary Magazine, Azahares Literary Magazine, Gyroscope, Hawaii Review, Hispanic Culture Review, Newtown Review, Panoply, Prachya Review, Shoreline of Infinity, Somos en Escrito, Stillwater Review, West Texas Literary Review, and the Winter 2018 issue of UU World. He is a Shortlist Winner Nominee in the 2018 Adelaide Literary Award for Best Poem. Recently, his poems are featured in Puro ChicanX Writers of the 21st Century and in Yellow Medicine Review: A Journal of Indigenous Literature, Art and Thought. His forthcoming books of poetry are Undesirable: Race and Remembrance, Somos en Escrito Foundation Press, and The Shadow of Time, Adelaide Books.
October 2020 | visual art
Corporate Interior, 1991 #1
Corporate Interior, 1991 #7
Tetman Callis
Tetman Callis is a writer and artist who lives in Chicago. His stories and poems have been published in a variety of literary magazines. His photographs, painting, and mixed media pieces have shown in galleries in Albuquerque and New York City. One of his photographs appeared in Burningword Issue 94. He is the author of the memoir, “High Street: Lawyers, Guns & Money in a Stoner’s New Mexico” (Outpost 19, 2012), and the children’s book, “Franny & Toby” (Silky Oak Press, 2015). His website is https://www.tetmancallis.com, and he can be found on Facebook.
October 2020 | poetry
My stepfather could be kind
when his hidden demons
did not plague decisions I discerned.
A child can only analyze actions,
shadows reflecting the body,
motions to mimic, wrestling
with the waves causing callous
repercussions, creating chameleon
reactions from what my teen-vision
saw. I observed a man whose hands
painted mastery, Michelangelo’s student
touching his canvas, one could feel
a man’s face. I observed a man
whose voice was soulful enough,
a stranger debating marriage would
buy a wedding ring. I observed
when his hands weren’t moving,
when the theater was empty, echoes
rose of tales he kept to himself. Voices
from the demons that plagued him
gave him his vices, filling glasses,
rising temper, spreading anger,
drinking, puffing, smoking, choking
a life, stagnating work promotions,
taking shallow steps towards goals,
a peeled banana softened, blackened,
losing firm grounding around himself.
Maybe the pressure of military life
and death darkened visions from friends
never forgotten. Maybe the pressure
of social behaviors of blended family
caused misery. Maybe the pressure—
coming to his hometown after two-decades,
finding old friends, riding the same street
corners and blocks became his framework
to live. Maybe. I still may love him; his
decisions left my mother in an unmarked grave.
Mervyn R Seivwright
Mervyn R. Seivwright has appeared or has forthcoming published works in AGNI Literary Magazine, The Trinity Review, African American Review, Santa Fe Literary Review, Montana Mouthful Literary Magazine, iō Literary Journal, The Stirling Spoon, The Scribe Literary Journal, Flights Literary Journal, Rigorous Magazine, Prometheus Dreaming Cultural Journal, and Toho Journal. He has received recognition as Second-Runner-Up for Mount Island’s Lucy Terry Prince poetry contest, a Semi-Finalist for the Midwest Review’s Poetry Contest, Z Publishing’s Kentucky’s Best Emerging Poets 2019, and has a poem commissioned by the British Museum, Ipswich, United Kingdom. Mervyn holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Spalding University, Louisville KY. He is from Jamaican heritage, born in London, England while he currently lives in Schopp, Germany.
