Ginosko Literary Journal #26 Spring 2021 GinoskoLiteraryJournal.com PO Box 246 Fairfax, CA 94978 Robert Paul Cesaretti, Editor Member CLMP Est. 2002 Writers retain all copyrights Cover Art: Ceramic mask found on beach at Point Arena, CA 2 ginosko A Greek word meaning to perceive, understand, realize, come to know; knowledge that has an inception, a progress, an attainment. The recognition of truth from experience. γινώσκω 3 The X factor, the magic, is when we come to those rifts and make those leaps. A religious devotion to the truth, to the splendor of the authentic, involves the writer in a process rewarding in itself; but when that devotion brings us to undreamed abysses and we find ourselves sailing slowly over them and landing on the other side—that’s ecstasy. — Denise Levertov 4 C O N T E N T S Ranks 12 Denis Bell The Pit 13 Brucie Jacobs Stick Fingers (Unblocking my ex on Instagram) 14 Wilson Koewing Execution 15 Thrift 15 After the Psychology Conference 16 Fire Escape 17 The Confession 18 Susannah Sheffer WINDOW 19 SILENCE AND THE ROSE 18 REVERIE 19 Andrew Leggett Morning Sickness: A Letter I Never Sent 21 Genevieve Jaser Almost Dead Hen 23 China 25 Robin Egg Blue 26 David Sapp Forty: 27 Forty-Two: 27 Forty-Eight: 27 Jamie Brown The Storymaster 29 Kate Brandt Emergency Room Visit 39 Erika Loh A Fair Amount of Ghosts 41 Zach Murphy 5 The Child Within 42 The Girl In The Puddle 43 The Sounds Before The Sounds I Knew Before 44 Flight 45 Seek-sorrow 46 Connection 47 The Spaces Between 47 To Look Into Another’s Eyes 48 Fear 49 Olivia Hajioff Destination 50 Host 51 Santa Maria de la Sede 52 At the end 53 Transformation 54 Peggy G. Hammond Cameo In Deed 55 Sochukwu Ivye LINDA 62 STORK 65 SMALL TOWN SUMMER 68 Ashley Pearson One Life 76 Kevin Brown The Beach 84 Grace Parsons Girl in the Doorway 86 Chris Parent The Score 92 Reunion Dr. 93 Wake Up 94 Jeremy Szuder Suppose. 96 Emily Black Madrid Hotel Room 98 Declan Geraghty 6 Broken Sonnet for a Pre-Conquest Mexico 100 Broken Sonnet Para La Noche Triste 100 Intervención Estadounidense en México (1846) as Broken Sonnet 101 Zoot Suit Broken Sonnet 101 Sonnet for gasping high schoolers M.C. Zendejas Heritage 103 Mountain Morning 104 A Storm in August 105 Summer Redux 106 Georgette Unis Burial 107 Brucie Jacobs BOTTLE IT UP 110 CAPRICE AT FOLLY BEACH 111 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SANCHO PANZA 112 MOURNING SEASON 113 READING ABOUT THE IMMORTAL HENRIETTA LACKS, I RECALL 114 TOWER OF BABEL 115 David E. Poston LIVING WITH THE ANIMALS 116 David K. Slay Two Bits 124 The Beautiful 400 Restaurant 125 After Death 126 B Side 128 Call, Text, Ad 130 December Song 1 131 December Song 2 131 December Song 3 131 Early November Snow 132 Envelope 133 Timothy Robbins 7 About the Dirty-Shirt Boy and the Orange Balloon 134 How to Kill a Doctor 135 Losing Paradise 136 To Hear the Faint Sound of Oars 137 Susan Terris An Elegy for Esmeralda 138 Ken Wetherington Imperfect 143 I Focus on a Leaf 144 Conjuring Light 145 Monologues & Acorns 146 Salvaged 147 Marcia Arrieta Cappadocia 148 Sortie 149 The Lost European 150 Voice from the Terrace 151 Lucky Jim 155 To Be Preserved 153 The Red Flag 155 Your Own Way 156 The Test Site 157 Story of the Eye 158 Frederick Pollack Orthopnea 159 Paisley 160 Pennsylvania Extreme Lottery 162 Kelley Jean White As Far As the Eye Could See 163 Paul Smith A Street Name 165 Other Versions 166 Pianissimo 166 Temple of Artemis: Sardis, Turkey 1966 167 Seeing Red 168 8 States of Being: A Triptych 169 Disbelief: 2016 170 My Father Was Here 171 Divinity 171 Clio’s Questions 172 Joel Savishinsky INJURIES OF HEAVEN 173 MICROWAVE HOROSCOPE AND PALM READING 174 TRUE CRIME 175 UNREASONABLE WEATHER 176 WHITE NOISE 176 Elizabeth Morse something, i forget 177 other forms of zero 179 after california 179 you and i and the jackal king 180 the other truth 181 the sound 182 lucidity 183 the bleeding horse admits defeat 184 true faith 185 on the creation of myths 186 John Sweet A Warm Spot 187 James William Gardner Waitress 189 Wild Solo 190 Radishes 191 High School Biology Class, 1965 192 Who’s to Say 193 Allan Johnston that high note 194 i’m batting first today 195 a six pack of poems 196 eyes..universal 196 Emalisa Rose 9 A Flutter at Dawn 197 Eventualities 198 Shopping Cart Dreams 200 The Uses of Fists 201 Sonnet: The Poem I Would Never Write 202 Sonnet: Can It Carry a Tune? 203 Essentials 204 Gene Twaronite Imagining Mom Young 205 Night Drive 205 Chatting 206 Aldan Walker Just Enough Light to Read By 207 Colors Scheme and Orchestrate 208 “A tree is not a woman” 209 Some of my Winters 210 Dan Raphael What We Didn’t Know 214 Mornings 214 New Years 215 Learning to Write 216 Circles 217 Telephone 217 Submerged 218 Des Moines 218 Call Me Al 219 The Poet 220 Matthew J Andrews Words whisper in the dark 222 Sharon Lopez Mooney SILENT NIGHT 226 THE OUTWARD MANIFESTATION 229 AUTUMN SHADOW 231 Bill Tremblay Alone 232 Rob DiLillo 10 THE GREAT BETRAYAL 235 Clive Aaron Gill Joni Mitchell: Poet Laureate of Her Generation 251 John C. Krieg My Advent Menorah: A Lutheran Pastor Reflects On His First Hanukkah 271 Rev. Jeff P. Crim C O N T R I B U T O R S 11 Ranks Denis Bell Buddy snatched up the dispatch that had just come in from HQ. Bridge collapse 3 miles south of Amman. 15 dead. Buddy closed his eyes and opened them to the sound of boots converging on his head. Reached out and grabbed the sweaty elliptical piece of cow and threw it to a lanky white boy. Dude did this little rain dance thing that he used to do, then squinted up into the sun and launched a Hail Mary 50 yards downfield. Right into the upstretched palms of Corey D. Corey lived with his gran in a tenement building down the street from Buddy and they were in the same class at Jefferson High. Then they were in boot camp together. Corey had the sort of chiseled features you used to see on cigarette ads in the days when they still had them. Buddy liked Corey more than it was wise to let on back then. Corey was a little slow in the head and could get into some bad shit at times. But Buddy didn’t think about that. Buddy thought about the time Corey sat with him all night at the hospital when his mom had her stroke, how they used to share things. Left his guts in the desert in the Spring of 2005 in pursuit of an objective less noble. Buddy remembered it like yesterday, the headlines and the hype. HOME BOY MAKES GOOD. They put his face on a recruiting poster like they owned him now. 12 The Pit Brucie Jacobs The day I walked into your office, that white sanctuary, everything in place as usual, and spotted the peach pit—the kernel matted with orange hairs still moist—next to the basket of Kleenex on the small table, I imagined you sitting in my chair, the peach in your hand, sinking your teeth into the fruit, biting through the downy skin, sweet with that bitter twinge peaches have. Savoring the fruit, you licked the juice from your lips, leaned forward to take another bite, then another, until you heard me knock. Hastily you wiped your hands on the seat of your pants, went to the door and let me in. But you'd left the peach pit on the table. I began to understand that despite your Jesuit-like wisdom, your ability to catch my muddled thoughts in mid-air and hand them back polished as precious stones, your composure when I hurled insults at you, your tactful recognition of my unspoken need the day you handed me a couple of plump berries from the plant by the door, your patience when the temptress in me breathed hotly against your ear, your talent at unraveling silken threads from the web of my dreams, you were, after all, simply human. I sat down and we began. Just as usual. originally published in Barnabe Mountain Review #2 13 Stick Fingers (Unblocking my ex on Instagram) Wilson Koewing I shouldn’t have pressed “unblock.” She dyed her hair blonde and resembles a pin-up now. She discovered all the vintage clothing she was searching for. Stuck in it with me, she stopped searching. Now she’s posting photos of lighthouses in North Carolina. Her posing with perfect homemade pasta. “Come visit” hashtags for the Italian friend who taught her how to make it while abroad. Once, when we started dating, she left out her diary and he happened to be the subject of the page. She wanted him to want her, but he was interested in a girl from Dallas. In her private thoughts to herself, she tried to understand why he didn’t. Anytime she mentioned him, my face flushed. I shouldn’t have read it. A well-framed shot of her applying lipstick in a mirror, inside the house we shared, leaves me wondering who took the picture. She’s back in New Orleans. Haunting familiar haunts. Literal rose colored glasses.