Issue 38
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Artists Featured in LIT 38
Mark Hurtubise:
(on the cover) Beelzebub’s Sycophants, 2022, photograph
Last Judgement, 2023, photographMark Hurtubise published numerous works during the 1970s. Then family, graduate school, two college presidencies and a community foundation CEO. After four decades, he is creating again from the Pacific Northwest like a pregnant bird balancing on a twig. Recently, his offspring have appeared in several locales such as Tampa Review; North Dakota Quarterly; Bard College Center/Study of Hate, filmed interview;
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A Review of Georgia San Li’s “Wandering”
by LIT poetry editors, Rebecca Endres and Richard Berwind
Wherever you look in Georgia San Li’s “Wandering,” you are bound to find people in that restless stage of anticipation, traveling and on the cusp of arriving at their next destination. The voices of her poems are so often “alone and surrounded/waiting, to enter somewhere else.” It’s the yearning, the tightness in the chest before crossing that threshold to somewhere else that makes her poems so powerful.
As the title of the book suggests, “Wandering” tackles movement—between past and present, between different generations of family,
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The Allegorical Doctor
image curtesy of the Public Domain Review
by Genevieve Abravanel
The allegorical doctor has a bottle. A cloudy glass vessel with dark syrup inside. “This is the cure for what ails you. Your liver, for instance.”
“There’s nothing wrong with my liver.” Julia clutches her purse. Gucci, green snake skin, off-season, on sale.
“Just an example.”
“How much does it cost?” Julia will not tell Ted. She’ll use her private money.
“Everything and nothing.”
Julia hesitates. Considers Dr. Friedrich with his half-moon glasses and tweed jacket.
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Two Poems by Chloé Savoie-Bernard from “Royaume Scotch Tape” Translated from the Québécois French by April Yee
image curtesy of The Public Domain Review
weather forecast
saturday night all over again
girls smoked down to the filter
bloomed girls craving pollen
dropping petal by petal
girls will fall from windows
shower in villeray mile end hochelaga
pretty girls with conditioned hair
wafting clinique happy
discounted at the department store
bring your umbrellas
girls will rain to the ground
dust ash from their dresses
to get to their lovers’ homes
legs twisted from the fall
elbows knees
palms bloodied
gravel-
bedded wounds
they’ll get up anyway
and all those boys
will cover their injured limbs
in mickey mouse band aids
prévision météorologique
samedi soir une fois encore
des filles fumées jusqu’au filtre
des filles fleurs en manque de pollen
qui s’étiolent pétale après pétale
des filles tomberont des fenêtres
crachin dans villeray mile end hochelaga
de jolies filles aux cheveux hydratés
sentant le clinique happy
en solde chez la baie
sortez vos parapluies
elles s’écraseront lourdement au sol
épousseteront la cendre de leurs robes
pour remonter chez leurs amants
les jambes tordues par l’impact
les coudes les genoux
les paumes en sang
de la garnotte
plein leurs blessures
elles remonteront quand même
et les garçons qu’elles rejoignent
mettront sur leurs corps accidentés
des band aids mickey mouse
*
third date
looking at the ceiling of your room it’s time for confessions the post-coital chalice
you confess all your exes are screamers the rest of your phrase slipping a sigh I
want to take back the echo ask what kind of screams gah you reply crazy screams
i fling on my clothes won’t see you ever again definitely don’t walk me out that’s
too proper i’d rather take back everything i left behind slamming the door of your
flat repatriate my residues my shedded cells where you’ll sleep tonight and
tomorrow and the day after till you decide to dissolve me and wash from your
sheets the remaining tatters of my skin let them longlive me let them hug you
sweetly and shush don’t talk about girls like that let my sebum and scent sing you
to sleep and watch your slumber while exhaling in your ear that all the nutcases
the psychos the wack jobs that all the crazies are all my sisters
troisième date
on regarde le plafond de ta chambre c’est le moment des confessions I guess
calice de post-coït cave tu m’avoues qu toutes tes ex sont des crisses dans un
soupir sille le reste de ta phrase je veux récupérer l’echo te demande des crisse de
quoi han tu me réponds des crisse de folles je me rhabille rapidement ne te
reverrai jamais ne me reconduis surtout pas ça va être correct mais j’aurais préféré
reprendre tout ce que j’ai laissé de moi en fermant la porte de ton appartement
dans de grands mouvement de bras rapatrier mes résidus mes cellules mortes dans
lesquelles tu te coucheras ce soir et demain et après-demain jusqu’à ce que tu
décides de me dissoudre en mettant tes draps au lavage puisqu’ils doivent rester la
les lambeaux de ma peau qu’ils me prolongent qu’ils t’étreignent doucement et te
chuchotent qu’on ne dit pas ça des filles qu’elles sont folles que mon sébum et les
restes de mon parfum te bercent et veillent ton sommeil en te soufflant sur la
nuque que toutes les bâtardes les démentes les étrangères que toutes le folles sont
mes soeurs
"Royaume Scotch Tape" is published by L'Hexagone and is available here
Dr.