Views and Mechanics Publisher's Note Editor's Note Review of Lions at Lamb House Review of Jamestown Review of The Children of Húrin Review of The Politics of Life Film Review of "300" Creative Nonfiction Home By Marion Agnew One Foot and Then the Other By Greg Coykendall Poetry Hannah Plays with Light By Kristine Ong Muslim Caricature of an Early Planter By Michael Lee Johnson Comes a Push-Cart Down a Long-Ass Ghazal By Levon DeBranch Modern Day Moses By Bob Boston Squares (2) Plaza De Armas, Santiago, Chile By Graham Burchell Fiction The Larchmont Campaign By Zain Deane Body Warmth By Louise Kantro The Good People Up North By T.M. Spooner Triple Word Score By Patricia C. Meringer Texans Abroad By Franklin Strong Hunting for Manhood By Jason Sizemore Staten Island Zen By Michael Enright About the Contributors © 2007, River Walk Journal and respective authors and artists. All rights reserved. Do not use or reproduce without permission. River Walk Journal, Inc. Board of Directors Chairman - Elizabeth Ross Vice Chairman - Joseph Koch Secretary/Treasurer - Geri Stock-Ross Editorial Director - Patti Kurtz, DA Literacy Director - Kenneth Weiss, Ed.D Policy Director - PA State Rep. Jess Stairs Advisory Board Chairman - Patti Kurtz, DA Asst. Chairman - Dan Lachenman, PhD Samuel Hazo Christopher Leland Edwin Yoder Joseph Bathanti Journal Staff Publisher - Elizabeth Ross Editor-In-Chief - Joseph Koch Senior Editor - Patti Kurtz Senior Editor - Neeldhara Misra Copyeditor - Kathy Skaggs Blog Contributing Editor - Maggie Koster Education Blog Contributing Editor - Jordan Wirfs-Brock Publicity Director (PA) - Geri Stock-Ross For information about submissions, visit http://www.riverwalkjournal.org/subs.html. Questions about promotions, subscribers' services, and advertising should be sent to publisher@riverwalkjournal.org. River Walk Journal, Inc. is a non-profit corporation run entirely by volunteers. For information about volunteer opportunities and internships, visit VolunteerMatch. |
Comes a Push-Cart Down a Long-Ass Ghazal By Levon DeBranch There are way too many people writing poetry, and not nearly enough people reading it. Poets write for the publication credits, collect them like rare stamps. Each of them, Aims to be the next Charles Bukowski, or the next Langston Hughes, or the next Mary Jo Bang ... or, the next - Lynn Lyfshin. They all want to be nominated for that damn Push-Cart. I already have one of those. It's the metal basket I wheel down the avenue with my bottles in. I write my poems on discarded newspapers. On yesterday's papers, I write my own news. I steal pens from the staff at the shelter I live in when they're not looking. When I'm not at the shelter, or meeting with the doctor, I'm at the library; the nice woman who works there in her spare time sends poems of mine out to people who publish poetry on the library computer. I've never used ... one of those either. I drop by the library once a day to see what's doing. Me and my cart sometimes make our way to the city green where I sit on a park bench - befriending the pigeons and squirrels. I've had a lot of poems published here and there, but I have never won a Push-Cart. I'm not even sure what a Push-Cart for poems is. Is it anything like mine? Why wouldn't they just give us poets what we need more of? Some paper? A few pens? Envelopes? Stamps?! Instead, they aim to give us ... cart? I have to remind myself for the blessings I have. I have the nice lady in the library who believes in my odes, I get all the entertainment and friendship I need from the pigeons and squirrels. Believe it or not, the number of people who bring their bottles back to the grocery store, is just about the same as the amount of people in the world who read poetry. A Push-Cart. The wheels on mine work just fine. However, If the Push-Cart is indeed, an actual cart ... depending on what it's made of - it might make ... a nice box. |