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EDITORIAL

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THREE POEMS
by Jenna Cardinale

Backwards Talking is Smiling
for Lisa Jarnot

That the people talk in the espresso bar, that the people talk in the espresso bar quite loudly, that the people are talking in the espresso bar, that in the espresso bar the people are talking, that I hate things, that they hate me back, that the people all hate each other and the Volvos, that the Volvos hate each other and the people, that by hating in pursuit there are people and there are Volvos that they hate, that in hating people and hating people and hating there are Volvos, that the Volvos smile but not the people, that the smiling Volvos smile, that the smiling Volvos show their teeth to people and then the people do talk, that the talking people in espresso bars talk to the shown teeth of the Volvos, that the talking and the smiling people are talking at the sight of smiling Volvos, that the talking and the smiling in my everyday must begin, that the people must wake and hate the Volvos smiling, that the waking Volvos talking hate the people, at noon, awake, in talking at the Volvos in the espresso bar.



Spice 1

How wide-awake the frogs are:
they echo and reecho and cannot live
alone any more
than we can, like all abortionists.
What is not perfect
has no real
right. The rope does not knot
around the neck, but the cock.



Choose Your Own Adventure

We see the moment
when the pronouncement
of philosophers ceased
to be greeted
with forehead slaps
of recognition or shouts
of "Heretic!"
and began to be
met with mumbles
of "Oh, shut up."

Imagination is
a propelling and sometimes
cruel force.

         /

The post-Enlightenment
equivalent of sainthood:
pull the genius
from the jug.

         /

If my husband tries to fuck
you while I'm gone... don't
be frightened. He's an old
man and he drinks. Chances
are it will be brief.

         /

North Korea knows this
about itself.

          /

You can pay hundreds
of dollars for a pencil,
but its mechanism will be
essentially the same
as that in the pencils
that cost much less.

         /

Every hard-charging woman
suddenly wants to play
fifties girl with a diamond
solitaire and a box
of Tiffany invitations.

         /

Write Martin & Kiki
(not their real names)
and ask for more
information on the process
and how much
the SAT minimum really
means to them.

Wait for a reply.

         /

The influence of revolutionary events
in France and Ireland and Italy
can be imagined.

         /

We are forty
years past the feminine
mystique.

         /

Many versions of the Führer's
death or escape
in the immediate
aftermath of the war
have become current.

         /

You can help
by dying. You
are a cancer.

You can help
the world's people
with your death.

Alas, poor LeRoi.

         /

The audience is nearly dying
of laughter as it listens
to the squabbling between the two
puppets who gesticulate
and insult each other so
realistically that they may
be two rational creatures.

         /

Poles never find
their middle
way of life.

        /

One looks
in vain in
their history
for common
sense.

         /

He endured a brutal
upbringing at the hands
of his sadistic father.
He forced him
to watch
the beheading of his best
friend, who tried
to help him
escape to England.

         /

More to the point, the puppet
himself is something of a sociopath.

         /

Although the moral
of the story is the same,
the atmosphere is darker
and more dangerous.

         /

Surprisingly, most immediate
and convincing are the discussions
about abstract expressionism.

Hope makes
sandwiches. They tour
the yard and look
into Hope's studio.

         /

The next phase is predictable
enough: student rebellion,
estrangement from family, sexual
adventure and spells
of jail time and finally
banishment to Vyatka,
near Siberia.

         /

This is the fate
of conscientious radicals
throughout history,
but nobody ever records
the emotions of disaster
and disillusionment.

         /

In my opinion, when the dead cry,
it is a sign that they are sorry
to be dying.