Table of Contents


Views and Mechanics
Publisher's Note
Editor's Note
Review of Paint It Black
Review of The i Tetralogy
Poetry
Zoology
By Patricia Murphy
Framed Gift
By Sheila McLaughlin Sikorski
Friends 'n' 'at or Ode to Pittsburghatory
By Betta Risa
In My Father's Shoes
By Richard Fein
Freedom
By Skip Shea
Fiction
Quitting Time
By Barbara Archer
Tumbleweed
By Thom Brennan
Maternal Instincts
By Diane Kimbrell
You Should Write People Dead
By T. M. Warfield
Spring Fling
By Patricia Murphy
About the Contributors

© 2007, River Walk Journal and respective authors and artists. All rights reserved. Do not use or reproduce without permission.

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Asst. Chairman - Dan Lachenman, PhD
Samuel Hazo
Christopher Leland
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Editor-In-Chief - Joseph Koch
Sen. Fiction Editor - Patti Kurtz
Sen. Poetry Editor - Neeldhara Misra
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Freedom
By Skip Shea

Cardboard sits in my shoes
Keeping my feet and socks slightly
Cleaner than the road

But in this rain it is useless
Absorbing the water through
The worn holes

Small victories add up to single digits
As my losses are epic

In a balanced universe I deserve
A wink of gratitude from the winners

I head down a deserted alley
In this dead end and abandoned mill-town
Looking for a dry place to sit

Tossed under a make-shift aluminum awning
Is an empty Nike box
Once filled with unaffordable dreams

In my world God allows the theft of dreams
Just do it

Taking my soaked socks off and slipping
My feet into the newly soled shoes
I find
For this moment,
With this small victory

I am free