EXCERPT

THIS HOUSE IS OUR GARDEN

plant in its withered eaves 
old paint-chip-curls catch the offering
streaks along the floor where rain seeps in.
Write hieroglyphs coded to
us in water-stain symbols—
pennies hidden under clay cups.

We fill them again and again—
sliced fruit, coffee, sweet juice
and cold water. Our table adorned
with bright red berries.

Yes, we know they’re poison.
We choose them for their warning-color.

ABOUT THE POETS

Wild Soft makes her home on the banks of the Ohio River. Her work appears in such magazines as Stone Telling, Still: The Journal, Room, and three drops from a cauldron; her first chapbook is in these cups (dancing girl press, 2016). She is the Pushcart nominated collaboration of poets Nicci Mechler, Hilda Weaver, & Wendy Creekmore. Kristin Koester joins in for this chapbook. Blog: wildandsoft.wordpress.com. 

INDIVIDUAL BIOS

Wendy Creekmore lives in rural Northern Kentucky, just south of Cincinnati, Ohio, with her husband, Virgil, and two kitties. At some point of each day, she can be found reading something from stacks of books and a load-heavy Kindle app and journaling furiously. Her work is has appeared in Sugared Water and Journal of Kentucky Studies.

Kristin Koester spends her time battling forest fires in her brain, writing poetry, and making art out of life. She is proud to be Kentucky-born and finds refuge in a nook where the Ohio and Licking Rivers meet, opposite of Cincinnati. Her work appears in Licking River Review. 

Nicci Mechler splits her time between writing poetry & speculative fiction, editing various things such as Sugared Water, and painting girls with inky tattoos. She’s hard-pressed to go anywhere without a sense of wonder and a pair of red shoes. She has published in a variety of magazines such as Booth, Kestrel, The Pinch, Roanoke Review, and Arroyo Literary Review. Deep in Flesh (dancing girl press) was released in 2016. thicketheart.com

Hilda Weaver is a retired psychotherapist, the mother of three, grandmother of four and great grandmother of many. Her poetry appears in Sugared Water, 94 Creations,Offcourse, and Licking River Review. Her first micro chapbook is The Autobiography of a Love Not Mine (Porkbelly Press, 2015). Her chapbook, Nettles and Thistles, is via Finishing Line Press.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Work in this chapbook first appeared in Still: The Journal, Room, Wild Quarterly, Stone Telling, and Hermeneutic Chaos Literary Journal.