Magazine
James Benger: “Entrance”
Barbara Daniels: “White Horses”
Cal Freeman: “Always”
Mari Kitina: “Only the Rice Cries”
Michael Lauchlan: “Trout”
Richard Levine: “For Want of Care”
Dudley Stone: “Turbulence”
Meredith Wattle: “Erie Goliath”
Ann Weil: “Living Through”
Floaters
Dr. Buñuel clamps open my eyes.
I am an Andalusian dog, I am
Clockwork’s Alex. If macular disease
is a crime, I am chastised with needles
from which I cannot avert my gaze. If
diabetic retinopathy is a sin, my penance
is lying still before lasers and being made
to stare repeatedly into the sun.
On weekends, Dr. B. is a pretend cop
for fun: “Did you know they call drowned men
floaters?” — like the dark flurries swirling through
my own flawed Christmas globes.
I won’t go blind
tonight, a gift if not a cure, but I know
there’s no escape (except this poem)
from another snowstorm of whirling angels.
About the Author: Dudley Stone’s poetry has recently appeared online in NiftyLit, Spare Parts, and Wilderness House Poetry Review. His writing for the theatre has been seen on stages from California to Connecticut. He has a B.A. in Theatre from the University of Kentucky and studied playwriting at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Mr. Stone lives in Lexington, KY.
Image Credit: Richard Sanger Smith “Eye Study No 7” (1840) Public domain image courtesy of Artvee
As It Ought To Be 