eMerge Magazine - Summer 2018

Are You OK? by Bill McCloud
Are you OK? I can’t tell you how many times over the years that family or close friends have asked me that question I always thought it was silly a dumb question Of course I am What are you talking about? Looking back now all these years later I’m thinking that when they were looking into my eyes they were seeing a future time A time like now when the question makes so much sense but no one’s asking (for my dad)

Summer 2018Issue 3: Summer 2018

Advice by Wendy Taylor Carlisle
By a lake shaped like a cartoon parrot We practiced the simple art. You were 17 and I was 19, two years between us and then I was twenty. This is the simple math. It was Florida in the Sixties and your aunt said, don’t grin honey, you don’t want to work your skin like that. She told me, one day you’ll be dead, but meanwhile put on some lipstick, wear a cute skirt.

Down There by Sandra Ostrander
Sex education didn’t exist in the ‘50s. I’m guessing there may have been a few enlightened parents who told their children about “the birds and the bees” as it was called back then, but I never met any of them or their children. All the kids in my neighborhood were equally ignorant, so we banded together, pooling our scant and misguided knowledge, working diligently to assemble the illusive pieces of the sexual puzzle. The brave among us asked our mothers, but they weren’t talking. We’d heard

A Bird Flew By by Lynn Packham Larson
A bird flew by And it carried my attention away… Into the endless blue sky. I gave it willingly. The fresh green mitten-shaped leaves Of a sassafras waved from among other trees And held my attention. I gave it freely. The dancing shadows of the dogwood Traveled through the window and onto the wall. How perfect they were. I accepted the gift gladly. The sorrow of loss can be great. I seek joy and solace in the abundant gifts Of friendship and art, music and nature. I notice the

Are You OK? by Bill McCloud
Are you OK? I can’t tell you how many times over the years that family or close friends have asked me that question I always thought it was silly a dumb question Of course I am What are you talking about? Looking back now all these years later I’m thinking that when they were looking into my eyes they were seeing a future time A time like now when the question makes so much sense but no one’s asking (for my dad)

Advice by Wendy Taylor Carlisle
By a lake shaped like a cartoon parrot We practiced the simple art. You were 17 and I was 19, two years between us and then I was twenty. This is the simple math. It was Florida in the Sixties and your aunt said, don’t grin honey, you don’t want to work your skin like that. She told me, one day you’ll be dead, but meanwhile put on some lipstick, wear a cute skirt.

Down There by Sandra Ostrander
Sex education didn’t exist in the ‘50s. I’m guessing there may have been a few enlightened parents who told their children about “the birds and the bees” as it was called back then, but I never met any of them or their children. All the kids in my neighborhood were equally ignorant, so we banded together, pooling our scant and misguided knowledge, working diligently to assemble the illusive pieces of the sexual puzzle. The brave among us asked our mothers, but they weren’t talking. We’d heard

A Bird Flew By by Lynn Packham Larson
A bird flew by And it carried my attention away… Into the endless blue sky. I gave it willingly. The fresh green mitten-shaped leaves Of a sassafras waved from among other trees And held my attention. I gave it freely. The dancing shadows of the dogwood Traveled through the window and onto the wall. How perfect they were. I accepted the gift gladly. The sorrow of loss can be great. I seek joy and solace in the abundant gifts Of friendship and art, music and nature. I notice the

Are You OK? by Bill McCloud
Are you OK? I can’t tell you how many times over the years that family or close friends have asked me that question I always thought it was silly a dumb question Of course I am What are you talking about? Looking back now all these years later I’m thinking that when they were looking into my eyes they were seeing a future time A time like now when the question makes so much sense but no one’s asking (for my dad)

Figures

Time to Choose

Aren't His Medals Shiny?

I Went to School Today and I Survived

Pink Laces

Advice

Hung, the Boat Woman of Hue

Dancing Trees in the Spotlight

John Heartbreak's Coffee is Cold

Trump for Gulag

Down There

Glory Rays Over the White River

A Splash of Pink

My Heart

That Halcyon Night

Dancing Girls These Days!

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