Welcome, readers, and thank you for joining us here at le chêne enragé for our 23rd issue, where masks litter the streets, and it’s not yet Halloween. How does one let go of what’s not there? Signs abound, but their pronouncements slip their frames, tangled in razor wire and cloud. May you and yours be safe in these uncertain times, and as you read these 18 works, remember to give a shout-out to the ghosts that haunt these lines, watching and waiting to be seen.
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Clara Burghelea: “The bones of the dog I loved first,” “Aperture,” and “Distance is nearness”
Laura Cesarco Eglin: “Chiaroscuro: At the Same Time”
Michael Imossan: “Rehearsing the Motionless State of Dead Bodies”
Meghan Malachi: “Safety Harbor, Florida, 2020” and “God Willing”
Cecil Morris: “Father Has Not Left Me in My Hours of Need” and “The Father Sitting in His Garden”
Nora Pace: “meditations while cooking for the dead” and “Sounding Lines”
Andre Peltier: “Bucephalus Rising”
Josh Ruffin: “Speech Therapy” and “In the Garden”
Rabid Oak 