Moon Rabbit

 

The scrape of a hare is a special thing,
            a hollow scribbled haiku-style

            in the dirt. Calligraphy saved
for another day.

A baby is born with its coat on, eyes open,
            ready for anything.

Deity Japonaise, Sami myth.
            In a Chinese tale the hare

eats the moon, pounds rice cakes
            delighting a child who believed

in the promise of sleigh bells
            on Christmas Eve.

Stars icing a birthday cake
            in a silent sky.

—

This selection comes from Julie Maclean’s Kiss of the Viking, available from Poetry Salzburg. Purchase your copy here!

Originally from Bristol, UK, Julie Maclean is now based in Australia. She is the author of ‘Kiss of the Viking’ (Poetry Salzburg, 2014), ‘When I saw Jimi’ (Indigo Dreams Publishing, UK, 2013) and e-chapbook ‘You Love You Leave’ (Kind of a Hurricane Press, US, 2014). Her poetry and short fiction features in international journals like Poetry and The Best Australian Poetry (UQP). Blogging at www.juliemacleanwriter.com.

Darren C. Demaree is the author of three poetry collections, As We Refer to Our Bodies (2013, 8th House), Temporary Champions (2014, Main Street Rag), and Not For Art For Prayer (2015, 8th House). He is the recipient of three Pushcart Prize nominations and a Best of the Net nomination. He is also a founding editor of Ovenbird Poetry and AltOhio. He is currently living in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and children.

Lachryma: Mother Aria for a Wet Day in Oslo

Holding a baby would have been good today.
I had the urge to lullaby after the Krohg
exhibition.

His gold-framed wife suckling the boy,
telling stories of Nordic explorers,
magic reindeer, trolls that turn to rock.

I always loved you being sick. In a dream
you came back to me, five weeks old.
Everyone wanted to hold you.

I was anxious.
You started mouthing adult words
like a singer practising scales.

When you told me you were leaving home
for your new life in a foreign state, I looked
out from the hotel window;

albino Operahuset; glacial granite mimicking ice.
I watched you toboganning the slope at Baw Baw.
You were eight.

Raindrops melted the snow.

—

This selection comes from Julie Maclean’s Kiss of the Viking, available from Poetry Salzburg. Purchase your copy here!

Originally from Bristol, UK, Julie Maclean is now based in Australia. She is the author of ‘Kiss of the Viking’ (Poetry Salzburg, 2014), ‘When I saw Jimi’ (Indigo Dreams Publishing, UK, 2013) and e-chapbook ‘You Love You Leave’ (Kind of a Hurricane Press, US, 2014). Her poetry and short fiction features in international journals like Poetry and The Best Australian Poetry (UQP). Blogging at www.juliemacleanwriter.com.

Darren C. Demaree is the author of three poetry collections, As We Refer to Our Bodies (2013, 8th House), Temporary Champions (2014, Main Street Rag), and Not For Art For Prayer (2015, 8th House). He is the recipient of three Pushcart Prize nominations and a Best of the Net nomination. He is also a founding editor of Ovenbird Poetry and AltOhio. He is currently living in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and children.

Beige
Remembering Lake Vättern, Jönköping

Two-tone dog roses
prick the shore.

A boy skims stones to impress.
The girl checks her phone.

Families make barbecue
the Eastern Bloc way.

A solitary yacht
with a white sail,

static as the summer sun,
slow as the London Eye,

watches for the loch
monster to appear.

It feels fake. Me here,
you there. Longitudes

in between. We’re in liminal space.
Soft-boiled like bad fiction.

Not quite right whichever way
you look. Sidetracked.

—

This selection comes from Julie Maclean’s Kiss of the Viking, available from Poetry Salzburg. Purchase your copy here!

Originally from Bristol, UK, Julie Maclean is now based in Australia. She is the author of ‘Kiss of the Viking’ (Poetry Salzburg, 2014), ‘When I saw Jimi’ (Indigo Dreams Publishing, UK, 2013) and e-chapbook ‘You Love You Leave’ (Kind of a Hurricane Press, US, 2014). Her poetry and short fiction features in international journals like Poetry and The Best Australian Poetry (UQP). Blogging at www.juliemacleanwriter.com.

Darren C. Demaree is the author of three poetry collections, As We Refer to Our Bodies (2013, 8th House), Temporary Champions (2014, Main Street Rag), and Not For Art For Prayer (2015, 8th House). He is the recipient of three Pushcart Prize nominations and a Best of the Net nomination. He is also a founding editor of Ovenbird Poetry and AltOhio. He is currently living in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and children.

Real Good for Free on a Stockholm Subway
Remembering Joni in Paris

The gypsy with the cheese-fat grin,
crushed takeaway cup hidden

in his pocket, struck up
a jig with a BYO* violin.

We smiled eco-friendly smiles
the Nordic way, not too much,

felt relieved at the next stop
when we could escape,

hadn’t time to scrabble
in wallets to spare him a coin,

though we clapped in what
must have been appreciation.

So, when I heard a clarinet
in a jazzy riff

(Dad playing Summertime
in the Llandoger Trow),

I saw the man with the pirate patch
squatting in rags on a city path,

and when I put ten kroner in his plastic bag,
he winked with his one good eye.

*BYO: Australian custom. Bring your own as in alcohol or drinks.

—

This selection comes from Julie Maclean’s Kiss of the Viking, available from Poetry Salzburg. Purchase your copy here!

Originally from Bristol, UK, Julie Maclean is now based in Australia. She is the author of ‘Kiss of the Viking’ (Poetry Salzburg, 2014), ‘When I saw Jimi’ (Indigo Dreams Publishing, UK, 2013) and e-chapbook ‘You Love You Leave’ (Kind of a Hurricane Press, US, 2014). Her poetry and short fiction features in international journals like Poetry and The Best Australian Poetry (UQP). Blogging at www.juliemacleanwriter.com.

Darren C. Demaree is the author of three poetry collections, As We Refer to Our Bodies (2013, 8th House), Temporary Champions (2014, Main Street Rag), and Not For Art For Prayer (2015, 8th House). He is the recipient of three Pushcart Prize nominations and a Best of the Net nomination. He is also a founding editor of Ovenbird Poetry and AltOhio. He is currently living in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and children.

Made in Sweden

Carpets of canola remind me
        of homeland,
You Yangs, clots of granite,
        ibis nesting in a mess
of twig and plastic bag.

Skåne farms
        are clones of clean
Monopoly hotels,
        no weeds,
turbines in handy places
        blow cobwebs away,

While the elk and bear
        on the graphic back
of a Winnebago
        down a fir-lined highway
                make me smile.

—

This selection comes from Julie Maclean’s Kiss of the Viking, available from Poetry Salzburg. Purchase your copy here!

Originally from Bristol, UK, Julie Maclean is now based in Australia. She is the author of ‘Kiss of the Viking’ (Poetry Salzburg, 2014), ‘When I saw Jimi’ (Indigo Dreams Publishing, UK, 2013) and e-chapbook ‘You Love You Leave’ (Kind of a Hurricane Press, US, 2014). Her poetry and short fiction features in international journals like Poetry and The Best Australian Poetry (UQP). Blogging at www.juliemacleanwriter.com.

Darren C. Demaree is the author of three poetry collections, As We Refer to Our Bodies (2013, 8th House), Temporary Champions (2014, Main Street Rag), and Not For Art For Prayer (2015, 8th House). He is the recipient of three Pushcart Prize nominations and a Best of the Net nomination. He is also a founding editor of Ovenbird Poetry and AltOhio. He is currently living in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and children.