The Bookends Review

The maze is a list,
a catalog of ships
left in a garden

& everybody knows
they don’t belong
& everybody knows

if they had been left
on water they would
take us to new places,

but here they are,
all terrible weight
& splinter, pain

& loss, a closed loop
that makes knowledge
another colony.

– Darren C. Demaree…

...continue reading

From my rear-view window,
filtered through the haze of an overcast sun,
a trail of hand painted signs drift by.
Weathered planks and chipping paint,
promises of produce and shoefly pie,
cutting through the endless blur of
farm and field.

Miles pass by in this way,
undisturbed by the glare of streetlights
and the growing shadow
of billboards waiting down the road.
Who knew there were some many
ways to say the word hate?

One look across the horizon and
I find myself a hundred miles down,
below the mason dixon.
A little red town.…

...continue reading

At six years old, I found our pet rabbit, Stew, mauled to death in his hutch. His soft, white pelt was streaked with blood, and his face—what was left of it—was a roseate valley of matted fur and wet meat. Bits of chewed-up carrot littered the hutch, like the fox had startled him mid-meal, and a final evacuation of his bowels was stacked sky high.

It was a bitter February morning, close to my birthday, and the ground was crusted with frost that crunched under my wellie boots as I trudged down the garden. I’d filled my beach bucket with carrots, as I did every morning, and was rubbing stars and fireworks into my eyes.

When I came to the hutch, I didn’t realise the rabbit was dead.…

...continue reading

In a sports bra worn thin by use and sweats that once tight hung were now loose, Jennifer ran five miles before her morning class.  It was her second favorite part of the day. 

Her bare feet hit the unyielding pavement, shock waves assaulting her feet, ankles, knees, and back.  Though the hurt felt good, she vowed that, when she hit 25, she’d stop  this.  By that time, she’d be totally grown, married, have  children, and spending hours in front of an ironing board.  She’d be too worried about how the table linens looked to indulge in a hobby as consuming as this.

In the meantime, it was pure bliss: running and running and running.  Arms and legs churning.  Body floating.  Like a waterfall, like Niagara, pouring herself through the sunrise. …

...continue reading

1.

In the canebrake behind the sea
where at night the crickets

become mute when we get close,
there’s a giant hand ruffling

the canes and the canes are
up again in a moment.

It’s wild boars—an entire
family, descended from the hills.

At the village they say the beasts are
confused, that the climate is

changing—but that is not
why the boars have come down here.…

...continue reading

Absolution ^[1]

when the night winds down beside you,
indifferently, lethargically, like
a cat
and the wonderance pesters you
like a cat
to backtrack
the day’s density,
be it complex or mundane, dense nonetheless,
and makes you replay
every interaction
flip-book style
showing how
your consonants cut
when it should have glided, how your eyes
scoured
when it ought to have gleamed, and how
last night
you said you’d change,
how you’d vowed
to be less harsh
to mother, friend, and cat,
to everyone, really,
but especially
to yourself,
and how,
regrettably,
you’d broken that vow
today
again,

remember that
you can try
     again
tomorrow.
and you can keep trying
again
         and again
            and again.

– Shawn Rampaul

---

^[1] “There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves, we feel that no one else has a right to blame us.…

...continue reading

Taking a deep breath, he placed both chalked hands on the starting jug hold, and then positioned his feet on the wall chips, one after the other.  He gave the signal, exhaled, raised his right leg, pushed himself upwards and reached his left hand to the next handhold, a nice incut, which was solid, then his right hand to the smaller but gripable edge hold.  There was just something really compelling about the first move, a rush of adrenaline when you lifted yourself off the ground.  It was like a rocket launch or a plane taking off.  This was the moment when you realized you could fall.  This was the moment when you realized you could fly. 

*                      *                      *

“How long have you been top rope climbing?” …

...continue reading