Issue 07
poetry
“Thrombosis”
by Karen McPherson
“Protecting What’s Mine” by Greg Turlock
I wanted to believe.
Some human kindness.
Some deep vein.
I thought I could not forgive myself
hating
and celebrating
my hatefulness.
But
that young boy’s body hanging on a
barbed wire fence, child’s small
handprint on a blood-smeared wall,
another grinning photo op with trophy
lion, poison dripping from the faucets,
open carry, razor wire—
Bitters on my tongue, umami rage.
*
Karen McPherson (she/ her) is an Oregon poet and literary translator who has published Skein of Light (2014) and the chapbook Sketching Elise. Her work has appeared in literary journals including Descant, Beloit Poetry Journal, Cincinnati Review, Potomac Review, and Chicago Quarterly Review. She is a former editor in the Airlie Press poetry collective. Find her on Twitter at @Kmcphersonpoet, on Instagram at ksmcpher, and online at www.kmcphersonpoet.com.
Greg Turlock is an internationally published author, poet, and photographer. His credits include “Rivers of Life,” an award-winning poem from the 2019 Alberta Arts Awards; Hightops in the Snow, his young-adult novel; “Prairie Survivors,” a photo essay in High Shelf Press; “Soul Toll on the Bay,” a short story from Horror USA: California; and “Nature’s Front Row Seats,” in Parkland Poets third anthology. Find him online at www.gregturlockcreative.com.