Miles Cleveland Goodwin, Yuu Ikeda, Daniel P. Stokes, Angela Arnold

ALWAYS
Yuu Ikeda
someone who has no name
is always watching me.
she is sometimes like a demon.
she is sometimes like an angel.
and, she is always like me.
uncountable eyes are watching me.
these are always like my eyes
and are watching me.
THE UNDERTAKER BLUSTERS
Daniel P. Stokes
Morning. The undertaker in my bedroom.
I meet him as I enter. The coffin by the wall
bolt upright. Egyptian-like with bellied head.
An inverted mandolin. He goes to lift it by himself.
It's small. It's very small. He struggles.
I help him. We place it on a stand. An incline.
Oh God, I feel, he's going to exhibit her again
here in the doorway of my bedroom. He swings
the casket open. Today she's dressed in pink.
The angle is too steep. She crumples.
I rush to pick he up. She gurgles.
I've heard of headless chickens. This means nothing.
She twitches. I glare. The undertaker blusters.
Her eyes, I watch them open, focus. She knows me.
Her face is fuller, younger. She shrugs herself to shape
and straightens. I feel me smile. "You're going
to be alright?" I question. "Yes," she smiles. I laugh.
"Yes," she laughs. I place my hands upon her shoulders
laughing. I know something's not right
before the clock goes.
IN THE MOMENT
Angela Arnold
Loud hiccups from the clock and
the sun-warmed washing stirring,
just. Two birds fling past; echoes of cries.
Your polished reflection there, still alight
with news of new me, AD '83 –
still as handsome.
We frame you, sit either side, window
close by. Decide: to look deep
into a puzzle of eyes, or out altogether.
Again, settle on fields we don't own
but inhabit all the same – clags of mud,
cleared boulders, barbed wire into
the bargain: needs must.
Miles Cleveland Goodwin's works range from brutal dirty realism to figurative flights of fantasy, but they are all deeply Southern, because Goodwin is deeply Southern. Born in the Biloxi, Mississippi in 1980, he served a tour of duty in the US Navy before earning a BFA from Pacific Northwest College in Portland, Oregon in 2007. After returning briefly to the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Goodwin established a studio in rural Northern Georgia, on the eastern ridge of the Appalachian Mountains. Goodwin currently lives with his dog, Venus, in a small wood frame house deep in the countryside of Fannin County, Georgia. Fannin County is a mountain community that is 99% white with over 90% of residents living on unincorporated lands. The county seat is Blue Ridge, with a population just over 1,200. Per capita income hovers just above the Federal Poverty Level. Once an agricultural community, the county has little economic opportunity for the average resident now. But what it lacks in industry, it makes up for in natural beauty. Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains, it is home to the Chattahoochee National Forest, the Cohutta Wilderness Area, Lake Blue Ridge and a large section of the Appalachian Trail. This tension between rural poverty and rural beauty is a recurring theme in Goodwin’s work.
Yuu Ikeda (she/they) is a Japan-based poet and writer. She loves mystery novels, western art, sugary coffee, and Japanese comic 呪術廻戦 (J†jaujutsu Kaisen). She writes poetry on her website.
poetryandcoffeedays.wordpress.com/ She is the author of poetry collections; Seasons Echoing Around Me, Phantasmal Flowers in The Eden Where Only I Know, A Chain-Smoker at Midnight, and more.
Daniel P. Stokes has published poetry widely in literary magazines in Ireland, Britain, the U.S.A, Canada and Asia, and has won several poetry prizes. He has written three stage plays which have been professionally produced in Dublin, London and at the Edinburgh Festival. 4 Newbridge Drive, Sandymount, Dublin 4 DO4EK59 087 2895038 danielpstokes2@gmail.com
Angela Arnold is a writer, poet, artist, creative gardener and environmental campaigner. Her poems have appeared in print magazines, anthologies, and online publications, both in the UK and elsewhere. Her first collection is In Between: ‘Inner Landscapes’ and Relationships (Stairwell Books, 2023). She lives in Wales.