Amarillo Bay Contents
Volume 12 Number 4
We are pleased to present the fourth issue of our twelfth year, published on Monday, 1 November 2010. We hope you enjoy browsing through our extensive collection of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry! (See the Works List to discover the over 450 works in our collection, including the ability to search through the issues.)
Fiction
Amsterdam
by Kenneth Harmon
Kenneth Harmon
Kenneth Harmon lives in Fort Collins, Colorado. He is a retired Fort Worth police officer who spends his time raising four daughters and writing when he gets a chance. In 2009, he was a finalist for the Pacific Northwest Writers Association Zola Award. In 2010, his short fiction has appeared in Bewildering Stories, Dark Fire Fiction, Twisted Tongue Magazine, 69 Flavors of Paranoia, Necrology Shorts, and FlashShot.
Henrietta glanced up from her plate of fried eggs, bacon, and toast. Across the table, Buck leaned back in his chair with a sigh. "Would you mind fetching me some prairie butter?"
Henrietta stood and walked into the kitchen, where a cockroach scampered across the counter toward the sink filled with dirty dishes. She lifted a skillet from the stove and returned to the table. Buck held up a piece of bread and Henrietta tilted the skillet to pour out bacon grease.
The banging on the door intensified. "Henrietta, darling, I got some boys who would like to see you."
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Before It's Too Late
by Mark Spencer
Mark Spencer
Mark Spencer is the author of two novels and two collections of short stories. His work has received the Faulkner Society Faulkner Award for the Short Novel, The Omaha Prize for the Novel, the Bradshaw Book Award, the Cairns Short Fiction Award, and four Special Mentions in Pushcart Prize. "Before It's Too Late" is based on material from Mark's recently completed novel Ghost Walking. Mark is Dean of the School of Arts and Humanities at the University of Arkansas at Monticello.
For the first hour of the train trip, Marie reads all the horoscopes and looks at the advertisements and crime stories in the newspaper she got from Clyde, who sells papers on the sidewalk outside the Downtowner Hotel in Memphis, where Marie has lived and worked as a maid for twenty-one years. Clyde lost his legs from the hips down in the First World War and scoots himself around on his knuckles and stumps, a canvas sack of newspapers dangling from his neck. Most days, from down on the cracked sidewalk, he says something like, "You need you a man, Miss Marie, that will 'preciate them nice legs of yours. If I wasn't married and had nine kids, I'd be spoonin' after ya myself." She always ignores his flirting as she quickly flips the pages of the paper, anxious to see her horoscope. This morning, he asked, "Why you dressed in black?"
"Pardon me, Clyde?"
"Why you dressed in black?"
"I'm taking the train to Indiana," she said vaguely and hurried away.
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Cicada
by Kerri Hecox
Kerri Hecox
Kerri Hecox lives with her husband and two children in Southern Oregon. She is trying to take up creative writing again, realizing that she really does need the right half of her brain.
Reggie walked briskly over to his Chevy pickup. It was cold and he fumbled with the keys for a moment, the wind stinging his bare fingers. An ice storm had raged the last two days, and the thermometer on the side of the house still read below freezing. The early crocuses he planted for Susan lay wilted along the edge of the driveway, their blooms shattered by the late storm. The back wheels of the truck packed them further into the dirt as Reggie pulled out.
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Marriage Triptych
by Jessica Levine
Jessica Levine
Jessica Levine's stories, nonfiction, poetry, and translations have appeared or are forthcoming in California Quarterly, Green Hills Literary Lantern, Old Red Kimono, North American Review, RiverSedge, and The Southern Review. She earned her Ph.D. in English at the University of California, Berkeley. She is also the author of "Delicate Pursuit: Literary Discretion in Henry James and Edith Wharton" (Routledge, 2002). Originally from New York, she lives with her husband and two daughters in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she works as a hypnotherapist. You can visit her at www.jessicalevine.com, where you will find links to some of her work.
She walked around the house running her hands over things, as though she might feel what she couldn't see.
She was in a period of disturbance about her marriage, and her first thought was that she had lost it unconsciously on purpose because she wanted to be free.
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With a Twist
by Lenny Levine
Lenny Levine
Lenny Levine has a BA in Speech and Theater. He has written songs and sung backup for Billy Joel, Neil Diamond, Peggy Lee, Diana Ross, Barry Manilow, the Pointer Sisters, Carly Simon, and others. He has also performed with the improvisational comedy group War Babies. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Cairn, The Dirty Goat, The Griffin, The Jabberwock Review, RiverSedge, and Westview.
Bernice drank only white wine spritzers, so she had to take his word for it. After 30 years of marriage, she was used to taking his word for a lot of things, which he expressed freely and virtually nonstop.
"What a dumb movie," he said, as he handed the valet the keys to their Lexus. "I mean, who did they think they were fooling? I saw everything coming a mile away."
You did?" she said. "Everything?"
"Just about. I spotted the FBI agent right off the bat. It was obvious."
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Creative Nonfiction
The Spanking Machine
by Salvatore Attardo
Salvatore Attardo
Salvatore Attardo was born in Belgium and was raised in Sicily and Northern Italy. He was educated in Italy and the US. He currently lives in NE Texas. His poetry and translations have appeared in various magazines, including The Tampa Review, Harpur Palate, Whiskey Island, The Arroyo Review, CadillacCicatrix, Quiddity, Rust + Moth, Bateau, Main Channel Voices, and others.
This special treatment, according to family lore, engendered a fundamental weakness of the spirit, which prevented him from successfully controlling his brood of five children. Ferdinando, my father, had no problem maintaining discipline with my sister and me, and this was taken as a sign that he should be able to transfer the skills honed on his own children to Alfonzo's. "Naną, nun si ni po cchił." said Nonna Alfonza, which translates roughly into "Ferdinando, this is unbearable." She did not need to finish the sentence.
My father, faced with the prospect of seven unruly children aged anywhere between eight and two years old, running screaming around the table, told us that if we did not behave he'd get the spanking machine and let us have it. My cousins, my sister, and I were duly cowed into submission.
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Poetry
Desire's Return
by Jed Myers
Jed Myers
Born in Philadelphia in 1952, Jed Myers studied poetry at Tufts University and served as editor for Tufts Literary Magazine. He's pursued a career in psychiatry, but has remained deeply involved in the work of poetry. In 1982, he moved to Seattle, where he's lived with his wife and three children.
His work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Alembic, Atlanta Review, Compass Rose, descant, The Distillery, Eclipse, Fugue, Meridian Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, Minnetonka Review, Nimrod International Journal, Pisgah Review, Poem, Prairie Schooner, Quiddity, Spoon River Poetry Review, Westview, Willow Review, and others. He has been a guest editor for Chrysanthemum and served editorially for Drash. Several of his poems will appear in a forthcoming anthology of Northwest poets' work to be published by Rose Alley Press.
Among other notices, he received first prize for a sonnet in the Writer's Haven 2004 Poetry Contest, won third prize in the 2005 Bart Baxter Poetry in Performance competition at Seattle's Richard Hugo House, was one of eight finalists in the 2008 Crab Creek Review Poetry Contest, and earned an Artistic Merit citation from Writers' Circle in 2008.
two human tongues just touching, in the silence
before tongues. There's the pleasure of long-
familiar lips meeting again, the intimate
refrain like a comfort of bowed strings set in
the frame of the wind. Time
allows us such pleasures. Remember
our own early rounds, our return to nakedness,
each of us as if newborn in welcoming
arms? Yes, and the pleasure
we rediscover, that innocent sin,
staring, prodding, swell and glisten,
lost like a pearl in the sand since the last
secret spell—was it under the basement stairs,
in that strip of woods at the edge of the golf course,
or against the brick wall behind the honeysuckle?
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Dreaming Purple
by Gay Baines
Gay Baines
Gay Baines lives in East Aurora, New York, and is a member of the Roycroft Wordsmiths. She has a B.A. in English from Russell Sage College and has done graduate work at Syracuse University and SUNY - Buffalo. She won the National Writers Union Poetry Prize in 1991, Honorable Mention in the Ruth Cable Memorial Poetry Contest in 1996, and the 2008 Mary Roelofs Stott Award for poetry, as well as other prizes. Her poems, essays, and short stories have appeared or are forthcoming in over 50 literary journals, including 13th Moon, The Baltimore Review, Bayou, Cimarron Review, Confluence, Confrontation, Controlled Burn, Dislocate, Eclipse, Hampden-Sydney Poetry Review, Louisiana Literature, Nimrod International Journal, Oregon East, Phoebe, The Pinch, Poet Lore, Quiddity Literary Journal, RE:AL, Rosebud, Slipstream, South Carolina Review, The Texas Review, Verdad, Westview, Whiskey Island, Willow Review, Wisconsin Review, and Zone 3. She recently published a book of poems, Don't Let Go.
like the one where I knew the
fanged wolf was in the room,
lain down on red satin sheets,
felt his breath scorch
my neck so that my scalp
tightened, and I could sense
fangs close to my veins.
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The First Warm Evening
by Gay Baines
Gay Baines
Gay Baines lives in East Aurora, New York, and is a member of the Roycroft Wordsmiths. She has a B.A. in English from Russell Sage College and has done graduate work at Syracuse University and SUNY - Buffalo. She won the National Writers Union Poetry Prize in 1991, Honorable Mention in the Ruth Cable Memorial Poetry Contest in 1996, and the 2008 Mary Roelofs Stott Award for poetry, as well as other prizes. Her poems, essays, and short stories have appeared or are forthcoming in over 50 literary journals, including 13th Moon, The Baltimore Review, Bayou, Cimarron Review, Confluence, Confrontation, Controlled Burn, Dislocate, Eclipse, Hampden-Sydney Poetry Review, Louisiana Literature, Nimrod International Journal, Oregon East, Phoebe, The Pinch, Poet Lore, Quiddity Literary Journal, RE:AL, Rosebud, Slipstream, South Carolina Review, The Texas Review, Verdad, Westview, Whiskey Island, Willow Review, Wisconsin Review, and Zone 3. She recently published a book of poems, Don't Let Go.
doves sweeping from trees,
the chatter of chipmunks, a small
dog barking way off, the cool
air but most of all the light,
promise of burnished days.
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Solstice
by Gay Baines
Gay Baines
Gay Baines lives in East Aurora, New York, and is a member of the Roycroft Wordsmiths. She has a B.A. in English from Russell Sage College and has done graduate work at Syracuse University and SUNY - Buffalo. She won the National Writers Union Poetry Prize in 1991, Honorable Mention in the Ruth Cable Memorial Poetry Contest in 1996, and the 2008 Mary Roelofs Stott Award for poetry, as well as other prizes. Her poems, essays, and short stories have appeared or are forthcoming in over 50 literary journals, including 13th Moon, The Baltimore Review, Bayou, Cimarron Review, Confluence, Confrontation, Controlled Burn, Dislocate, Eclipse, Hampden-Sydney Poetry Review, Louisiana Literature, Nimrod International Journal, Oregon East, Phoebe, The Pinch, Poet Lore, Quiddity Literary Journal, RE:AL, Rosebud, Slipstream, South Carolina Review, The Texas Review, Verdad, Westview, Whiskey Island, Willow Review, Wisconsin Review, and Zone 3. She recently published a book of poems, Don't Let Go.
that passed in a night-day
of snow and cloud—
but a few nights later,
the first inches of extra light
creep up each day.
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Like That
by Ann Minoff
Ann Minoff
Ann Minoff graduated from New York University with a degree in philosophy and continued her education at the National College of Chiropractic in Illinois. She received her Doctorate of Chiropractic in 1982. She currently teaches Yoga and classes on Kabbalah. Her work is forthcoming or has been published in The Alembic, The Distillery, The Literary Review, Lullwater Review, Nimrod, Porcupine, Quiddity Literary Journal, and Sacred Journey: Journal of Fellowship in Prayer.
she's frightened of chestnut trees and yellow begonias
she's terrified her body will just stop
and of course it will
death is like that
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My Yellow Couch
by Ann Minoff
Ann Minoff
Ann Minoff graduated from New York University with a degree in philosophy and continued her education at the National College of Chiropractic in Illinois. She received her Doctorate of Chiropractic in 1982. She currently teaches Yoga and classes on Kabbalah. Her work is forthcoming or has been published in The Alembic, The Distillery, The Literary Review, Lullwater Review, Nimrod, Porcupine, Quiddity Literary Journal, and Sacred Journey: Journal of Fellowship in Prayer.
her skull pressing against the thin layer
of skin as if already dead
soon she will waken uncertain
of the day or place or time
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Sunset
by Ann Minoff
Ann Minoff
Ann Minoff graduated from New York University with a degree in philosophy and continued her education at the National College of Chiropractic in Illinois. She received her Doctorate of Chiropractic in 1982. She currently teaches Yoga and classes on Kabbalah. Her work is forthcoming or has been published in The Alembic, The Distillery, The Literary Review, Lullwater Review, Nimrod, Porcupine, Quiddity Literary Journal, and Sacred Journey: Journal of Fellowship in Prayer.
leaving behind muted reflections of the day
my sister resounds her voice strong
declaring Kadish in honor of our father's memory
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Vampire
by R. L. Kurtz
R. L. Kurtz
R. L. Kurtz is a published poet, essayist, and teacher who has traveled abroad extensively, teaching in such places as Riyadh, Barcelona, Bahrain, and Taipei. His poem "Star Sapphire" has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and can be found in the journal Splash of Red. R. L. Kurtz is currently the director of an English Language school in Taiwan where he resides with his wife and two children. He has degrees in both English and Philosophy and received his Masters in literature in '98.
all pouting lips and razor grins.
No heroines dripping to their knees and offering
ripe necklines for another bite of blue-skinned love.
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Works List
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Works by Issue
Works are published the first Monday of February, the third Monday of May, the first Monday of August, and the first Monday of November.
| 2011, Volume 13 |
|
| 2010, Volume 12 |
Number 4, 1 November 2010 —Current Issue Number 3, 2 August 2010 Number 2, 17 May 2010 Number 1, 1 February 2010 |
| 2009, Volume 11 |
Number 4, 2 November 2009 Number 3, 3 August 2009 Number 2, 18 May 2009 Number 1, 2 February 2009 |
| 2008, Volume 10 |
Number 4, 3 November 2008 Number 4, 18 August 2008 Number 2, 19 May 2008 Number 1, 11 February 2008 |
| 2007, Volume 9 |
Number 4, 12 November 2007 Number 3, 6 August 2007 Number 2, 7 May 2007 Number 1, 5 February 2007 |
| 2006, Volume 8 |
Number 4, 6 November 2006 Number 3, 7 August 2006 Number 2, 8 May 2006 Number 1, 6 February 2006 |
| 2005, Volume 7 |
Number 4, 7 November 2005 Number 3, 8 August 2005 Number 2, 2 May 2005 Number 1, 7 February 2005 |
| 2004, Volume 6 |
Number 4, 1 October 2004 Number 3, 2 August 2004 Number 2, 3 May 2004 Number 1, 2 February 2004 |
| 2003, Volume 5 |
Number 4, 3 November 2003 Number 3, 4 August 2003 Number 2, 5 April 2003 Number 1, 3 February 2003 |
| 2002, Volume 4 |
Number 4, 4 November 2002 Number 3, 5 August, 2002 Number 2, 6 May 2002 Number 1, 4 February 2002 |
| 2001, Volume 3 |
Number 4, 5 November 2001 Number 3, 6 August 2001 Number 2, 7 May 2001 Number 1, 5 February 2001 |
| 2000, Volume 2 |
Number 4, 6 November 2000 Number 3, 7 August 2000 Number 2, 1 May 2000 Number 1, 7 February 2000 |
| 1999, Volume 1 |
Number 3, 1 November 1999 Number 2, 2 August 1999 Number 1, 3 May 1999 |