Greg Jenkins

Shouts and Whispers Greg Jenkins (From Compass Rose Volume IX) Standing at the deep end of the kidney-shaped swimming pool, the odd little man, who seemed reasonably sober even if he wasn’t, had just announced that he intended to walk across the water to the pool’s opposite side, pause, then walk back across the water [...]

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Penny Perry

The Order of Things Penny Perry (From Compass Rose Volume IX) Home from college, she climbs in the car, squints at my hair. Her father wants me to look glamorous like his actress friends. I wound my hair in sponge rollers and combed it into a stiff helmet. I wait for her to tell me [...]

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Gretchen Heyer

A Bit Thin and Slippery to Hold Gretchen Heyer (From Compass Rose Volume IX) He was in love with my voice, the story I told: the woman who sat by his bed while he waited at the cusp of life and death. The idea of love can kill as well as cure. Didn’t Charcot talk [...]

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Gannon Daniels

The Carport Couch Gannon Daniels (From Compass Rose Volume IX) She thought that she could tolerate for a while—let them finish her apartment just over the carport someone had abandoned a couch she knew exactly where they lay imagined two strangers making their way home after a night finding a dream they could gristle without [...]

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Jay Rubin

Dámelo       -for Ann Lauterbach Jay Rubin (From Compass Rose Volume IX) Of course, I can’t recall those words, Those early sounds that first made sense, When I first knew the reach of speech. Now, I watch my young son strive To comprehend the sounds I say: Go open the door. Let Lula outside. Staring off, [...]

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Katherine Lien Charriot

Last Night Katherine Lien Charriot (From Compass Rose Volume IX) When he first heard her voice on the telephone Tang didn’t recognize it, but his knees weakened anyway and his pulse raced out of control, his whole body responding to Deirdre’s very first words. Hours later at the bar waiting for her to show, Tang [...]

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2009 Contributor’s List – Volume IX

Joel Allegretti – “Lot’s Wife,” “Nocturne for Edith Piaf” Joel Allegretti is the author of The Plague Psalms (2000), now in its third edition, and Father Silicon, chosen by the Kansas City Star as one of the 100 Noteworthy Books of 2006. His poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in River Oak Review, Confrontation, Margie, [...]

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Ruth Berman

His Father Overseas Ruth Berman (From Compass Rose Volume IX) If he could go with his father, he thought He would be no trouble. He was small for his age. He wouldn’t need much housing. A boulder hollowed out would do. And all he’d need in the rock would be A bed, a shelf for [...]

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Perie Longo

Playing Crash Perie Longo (From Compass Rose Volume IX) Back from swimming lessons, my granddaughter doesn’t care about her baby sister’s tears or the fire’s smoke turning mountains into ghosts, nor does she mind her mother’s squinched face at the mouse found in the rice, or the new tenants who’ve taken over the washing machine. [...]

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Randall Brown

What To Do Randall Brown (From Compass Rose Volume IX) I wondered if the old woman collected stray children as one would cats. So many children, the rhyme went, she didn’t know what to do. The picture of the shoe showed a playground built into the shoe’s tongue and happy face after happy face going [...]

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