Molecule

— a tiny lit mag —

Issue 2

Spring 2020
 Molecule
Spring 2020
Issue 2

Founded & Edited by Kevin Carey & M.P. Carver

Cover Art: “Annuit Coeptis” by Joe McGurn
Issue Design: M.P. Carver
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Artwork Poetry
DENNY E. MARSHALL KATHLEEN AGUERO
Q Quark ⋙ 5 Labyrinth: Ramage ⋙ 12
JOE MCGURN ROBERT BEVERIDGE
Annuit Coeptis ⋙ 24 R. Mutt Takes a Bath ⋙ 13
DEANNA TIBBS WENDY TAYLOR CARLISLE
Botanical Lens ⋙ 42 I Talk to My Car. ⋙ 14
Ladybug Picnic ⋙ 54 CHANGMING YUAN
Rage, Rage against the Crow in
Prose the Park ⋙ 15
DENNIS DALY
LISA MARIE LOPEZ
Great Reckonings ⋙ 16
Treasure ⋙ 6
MARC DARNELL
DENNY E. MARSHALL
obituary—lily ⋙ 17
Two Last ⋙ 7 SUSAN DEMAREST
ROBIN TURNER
New Shoes ⋙ 18
The Yellow Box ⋙ 8
JD DEBRIS
AMY ZIMMERMAN By The Time The Titanic Sunk,
Spiders ⋙ 9 Chino Was Up In Spanish
Harlem, Damn Near Drunk ⋙ 19
JIM DUNN
Interview We’ll See, We’ll See ⋙ 20
MARK HILLRINGHOUSE MICHAEL ESTABROOK
Interview: with Maria Mazzioti Ailurophilia ⋙ 21
Gillian ⋙ 10 SAMUEL T. FRANKLIN
In a Dark House ⋙ 22
ROBBIE GAMBLE
Review Taconic Parkway Blind
CINDY VEACH Curve ⋙ 23
Book Review: HEX/Sarah JEFF GATELY
Sousa/Cow Creek Chapbook August 6, 2019 ⋙ 25
Prize/Pittsburgh State ALISON GERBER
University/$7.00/28 pgs ⋙ 11 The Wreck ⋙ 26
JOEY GOULD
Pithom & Raamses ⋙ 27
Poetry (continued) CHRIS O’KEEFFE
BLAINE HEBBEL Greek Vacation Haiku ⋙ 41
Fairy Tale ⋙ 28 RISA PAPPAS
RICHARD HOFFMAN Finite Patience ⋙ 43
Selfie #2 ⋙ 29 CHAD PARENTEAU
MARY ANN HONAKER Past Due ⋙ 44
Happiness ⋙ 30 JAY PAWLYK
LIZ HUTCHINSON Shelf Life ⋙ 45
DMX Buys People Shots, Gives AMANDA REECE
Sermon in St. Louis Airport Cytomegalo-huh? ⋙ 46
Chili’s ⋙ 31 DAVID ROGERS
MARK JACKLEY Picasso And Monet ⋙ 47
Nativity In Wet Snow ⋙ 32 LAURA B. SMITH
CHARLOTTE JUNG Explore ⋙ 48
Trampoline ⋙ 33 LINDA SPOLIDORO
HANK KALET my kitten kneads me like
Lyft Driver on the NJ dough ⋙ 49
Turnpike ⋙ 34 MATT STEFON
PAXTON KNOX Park Square morning ⋙ 50
fallout ⋙ 35 DAVID EARL WILLIAMS
KALI LIGHTFOOT For Drugs... ⋙ 51
Jazz Hands ⋙ 36 JOHN WOJTOWICZ
LAURINDA LIND Hippie Hollow ⋙ 52
Bad Timing ⋙ 37 THOMAS ZIMMERMAN
JOE MCGURN Wonder ⋙ 53
Armageddon ⋙ 38
JENNIE MEYER
CONTRIBUTORS ⋙ 55
Mortal Lullaby ⋙ 39
ALFRED NICOL
Baseball Haiku ⋙ 40
 DENNY E. MAR SHALL

Q Quark

5 AR T
 LISA MARIE LOPEZ

Treasure

She discovered the vintage Candy Land game on

a consignment store shelf, beneath piles of sad dolls.
She didn’t mind the missing pieces. The animated
box alone made up for a childhood once lonely with
colorless walls and quiet piggy banks; a toy chest,
housing nothing but dust.

6 P RO SE
 DENNY E. MAR SHALL

Two Last

Last man on earth. Seeks people for decades.

Finds no one.
Last woman on earth. Lives four blocks away.

7 P RO SE
 ROBI N TUR NER

The Yellow Box

I find the lie inside a small box. (Not the lie

itself, but its evidence.) The box is traffic light
yellow. Slow down. Speed up. Caution. The box has
a lid with hinges. Open. Close. We wait for what will
change us.

8 P RO SE
 AMY ZIMMERMAN

Spiders

My alarm rings. I’m tired. Specks move across

my ceiling. The specks scurry. My eyes focus. The
specks are spiders. I get a tissue. The spiders are
gone. I scan the ceiling and walls. No spiders. I
search the floor, my bed, myself. No spiders.
Burn the house down.

9 P RO SE
 MARK H ILLRINGHOUSE

Interview:
with Maria Mazzioti Gillian

Q: What is worth writing about?

A: The only things worth writing about are grief,

love and loss, for the people in our lives, for the
world, and for all we've done to destroy it. Poetry is
a way to explore memory, to find what connects us
as human beings.

10 I NTE R VIE W
 CINDY VEACH

Book Review: HEX/Sarah

Sousa/Cow Creek Chapbook
Prize/Pittsburgh State
University/$7.00/28 pgs

Sousa conjures a dystopian future where “Mother

took the food away” and we’re left unmothered in a
world where nets catch “everything but water” and
“water must be earned.” Lyrically haunting Hex
warns, “Don’t construct/future rubble” but also
divines an other world where “What is broken here,
/there is whole.”

11 RE VIE W
 KAT HLEEN AGUERO

Labyrinth: Ramage

What is the purpose of walking a labyrinth?

Monotonous path of near and far,
loops within a circle approach
the target then move farther,
closer, farther again. A certain type
of person transformed; another bored,
mocking, threading her way
from nowhere to nothing once more.

12 POE T RY
 ROBERT BE VERIDGE

R. Mutt Takes a Bath

The soap smells like antiseptic

and that's the biggest drain
I've ever seen. You could lose
a baby down there. Wash my back
before you pull the handle, will you?

13 POE T RY
 WENDY TAYL OR CARLISLE

I Talk to My Car.

“Elizabeth,” I say,
because that’s my car’s name.

“Elizabeth...”
not expecting an answer,

just waiting for her

suspension to do what

suspensions do
in old cars, rock me.

“Elizabeth,” I say,
“Let’s get the hell out of here.”

Her 8 cylinders hum,

and we do.

14 POE T RY
 YUAN CHANGMI NG

Rage, Rage against the Crow in

the Park

Disguised as a pigeon, you’ve just had

Enough food
From my palm
(& heart); then, you flap high up
Beginning to circle above me, ready
To flee away but only after
Shitting on my head
(& heart)

15 POE T RY
 DENNIS DAL Y

Great Reckonings

Back to each wall,

Eyes on the infernal door;
A quick stand-up precedes a fall:
An appellation ends without rancor.

16 POE T RY
 MARC DARNELL

obituary—lily

we strode by
our briefcase pace

till the woman

snipped you for a

slow sill death

who are we so alive

we sever things
to show prowess

with sharp objects?

a bouquet of you is

genocide a hate
crime for an

orange quivering
star of a mouth

17 POE T RY
 SUSAN DEMARE ST

New Shoes

Their tongues go sideways, every time.

You have to always dig them out.
And stiff? New soles
are unforgiving. Does that make sense?
The fallen laces come undone—no point in tying
double knots. I go to church each time
I buy new shoes.

18 POE T RY
 JD DEBRIS

By The Time The Titanic Sunk,

Chino Was Up In Spanish
Harlem, Damn Near Drunk

A
DJ
who
spun
tunes
aboard
Titanic
Reloaded—
capsizing,
iceberg-hit—
dolphinlike,
cannonballed,
breaststroked,
outmaneuvering
anxiety-stricken
multimillionaire
ship-entrepreneurs.
aDJcalledDeeJChino
swamon&on&on&on

19 POE T RY
 JIM DUNN

We’ll See, We’ll See

Our dilemma is, John,

We’ve got this time,
Ya’ know.

I’d love to, really

I mean
We’re not going
Anywhere

20 POE T RY
 MICHAEL EST ABROOK

Ailurophilia

Love of Cats

The Doc and Mrs. J. had 19 cats

and one miniature black poodle named Roscoe.
The little guy believed he was a cat too
lining up with the others waiting his turn
to use the litter box.

21 POE T RY
 SAM UEL T. FRANKLIN

In a Dark House

Here the ghosts sip

from jellyjar scotch
and pace the shadows
with my pale feet.

22 POE T RY
 ROBBIE GAM BLE

Taconic Parkway Blind Curve

opens onto two strutting turkeys

one in each lane, and at sixty
miles an hour and no shoulder
I have little choice to be anything
but a sniveling minor god
who stays on course, and takes
out the tom on the right.

23 POE T RY
 JOE MCGURN

Annuit Coeptis

24 ART
 JEFF GATELY

August 6, 2019

Clouds dark like mountains filled my view,

now a billion years of light hits my eyes.
I lay so still, I see the stars move
In the blue-black of the busy sky.

25 POE T RY
 ALISON GERBER

The Wreck

We were talking about books

on a slow rolling highway
before you saw it:
TRV-15-38.
If it weren’t for that
it could’ve been anyone’s
father’s car.

26 POE T RY
 JOEY GOULD

Pithom & Raamses

You say these names like I should know them,

in my hearts of hearts, a deep forge,
a weakness for brick. I work a double
shift & earn a notice to quit. In those days
you could run away across a sea—they had it
easy.

27 POE T RY
 BLAINE HE BBEL

Fairy Tale

the president (not mine)

runs in unarmed
to an active shooter scene
(in his own mind)
big hero to our nation
but really nothing more than
orange Claymation
the only possible way
he wouldn’t walk away
is if he saw a smoking hot teen
he wanted to lay.

28 POE T RY
 RICHARD H OFFMAN

Selfie #2

My body is earth's bricolage,

whereas my self — I am imagined

of necessity and desire, oh,

and fear; mustn't forget fear.

29 POE T RY
 MAR Y ANN H ONAKER

Happiness

Irish coffee files day's sharp edges.

I'm soothed into a chair;
a book drifts into my hand.
Clouds stumble across sky.
Pages dim and shine.

Is this happiness?
When I lay the book aside
my crow's claws will again clench
within the cage of my ribs.

30 POE T RY
 LIZ HUTCHINS ON

DMX Buys People Shots, Gives

Sermon in St. Louis Airport
Chili’s

Look, no one’s saying

he’s perfect. Let’s overlook
his parole violation, his tax fraud, his breach
of sobriety. We’ve all been there. We’ve all
preached in that airport, even if
we’ve never been to Missouri.

31 POE T RY
 MARK JACKLEY

Nativity In Wet Snow

When they hit

the lit-up
plastic Jesus
in the yard

Ten thousand
nameless miracles
vanish in the dark

32 POE T RY
 CHARLOTTE JUNG

Trampoline

tram oline

33 POE T RY
 HANK KALET

Lyft Driver on the NJ Turnpike

His job left him like

a cheating lover. The grass
is always greener when it rains.
He laughs. For the best
he says. New Years
morning. He’s prepared.
Plastic trash bags tucked into
the seat backs. At least
I get to wear sweatpants.

34 POE T RY
 PAXT ON KNOX

fallout

do you worry what i would write

in a blog post entitled
“to the vice president of facilities at
a national fast food restaurant chain”

thank your lucky fishing pole

neither of us are famous enough
for anyone to care what happened
in that hotel room

35 POE T RY
 KALI LIGHTFOOT

Jazz Hands

If forests

are the lungs

of the world then leaves

are songs trees breathe

soft breaths pause

between words inhaled stars

exhaled light miracles

jazz hands laughter

wet kisses
tears sent up
from the
underworld

36 POE T RY
 LAURINDA LIND

Bad Timing

He quit drinking
just before
the last election

37 POE T RY
 JOE MCGURN

Armageddon

bells ring out

on sunday morn
to wake the living
and the dead
time has come
when cursed or saved
arise from sleep
or from the grave
but none fear
the sonorous din
or holy writ
yet intoned
alas they dream
without a care
judgement day
has been postponed.

38 POE T RY
 JENNIE ME YER

Mortal Lullaby

Oh, mortals in midnight hour,

we sleep through leaking loss
of Earth’s honey, as, involuntary,
creatures lie in graves of fire,
slide into rivering chasms of ice.
Twenty-five thousand koalas,
crèche of emperor penguin chicks
slip off before we rise.
Oh, mortals, awake
before midnight
burns to day.

39 POE T RY
 ALFRED NICOL

Baseball Haiku

Catcher gives the sign

A white moth rises toward
the stadium lights

40 POE T RY
 CHRIS O’KEEFF E

Greek Vacation Haiku

On an ouzo run
Zach backed his golf car over
the town pelican

41 POE T RY
 DEANNA TIBBS

Botanical Lens

42 ART
 RISA PAPP AS

Finite Patience

Inconsolable
is a choice
isn’t it?
A cup scraping
against the bottom
of a bucket
one could easily
refill in the well.
Hair, quite tangled
but not too far
to be bristlefed
back to health.
Inconsolable
is a movie.
The audience
will choose
not to see
the sequel.

43 POE T RY
 CHAD PARENTE AU

Past Due

Following week
comes collect
karma calling.

Mercenary Zen
too many pieces
fall where may.

Buddha is no
western lawman
no need to aim.

Enlightened roads
paved with bodies
roadside sages.

We confuse what
ever will be
with what we want.

44 POE T RY
 JAY PAWL YK

Shelf Life

At the bookstore I spot

Henry Rollins’ thin volume of poetry
entitled Solipsism.

I wonder if he was surprised

his publisher answered his email
or that his royalty checks were signed
or that the anonymous masses
mostly ignore his book which, in a way,
proves they don’t exist.

45 POE T RY
 AMANDA REECE

Cytomegalo-huh?

The audiologist’s smile was shaky, apprehensive.

“These tests can be so fickle”.
But we knew.

He may not hear the roar of the waves at full

volume;
he feels their wrath, though;
feels the beat of the carriage wheels on the pavement
as we walk.
Bom, bom, bom.

46 POE T RY
 DAVID ROGERS

Picasso And Monet

Both could have painted

pictures of UFOs
but Monet's would have flown better
in skies lurid with post-watercolor
neo-expressionist pastels
over crumbling cubist skyscrapers
where nude aliens
depart from flying saucers
leave behind
non-Euclidean spacesuits
to descend spiral staircases
and escape from hoaxers and art thieves.

47 POE T RY
 LAURA B. SMIT H

Explore

Earth is fully discoverable

in streaming high def, yet
we continue to roam about
touching the parts, not getting
that like the elephant
its systems are connected
cause and effect.
I, too, long for Caribbean shores
in denial, disbelief. Feckless hope
that the hive mind will save us.

48 POE T RY
 LINDA SP OLIDORO

my kitten kneads me like dough

claws his way bloody

up my pant leg
like a totem
pees everywhere
eats every last crumb
he was found
sixteen deep
in a barn in Tennessee
no mama to raise ‘em up right
a southern cat
with northern manners
bless his little black-furred heart

49 POE T RY
 MATT STEFON

Park Square morning

Arlington
trembles
under the 9 bus—
the T
rumbles,
juice through a vein—

50 POE T RY
 DAVID E ARL WILLIAMS

For Drugs...

They had little nipples

In the top of They heads
And that's where They'd drip
The TED talks in

51 POE T RY
 JOHN WOJTOWI CZ

Hippie Hollow

steep limestone shoreline

exposed skin
of nonchalant nudists;
two older gentleman fishing,
poles in the water

52 POE T RY
 THOMAS ZIMMERMAN

Wonder

Big world out there,

presliced like bread sometimes.

Sometimes, like art or sex,

it screams out, “I’m alive!”

Sometimes it squeaks
along its seams
just like that fat
conductor’s tux:
the thorny violin a cry.

And later,
oh,
pale curves of you.

The hotel windows

framing moons.

53 POE T RY
 DEANNA TIBBS

Ladybug Picnic

54 AR T
 CONTRI BUTORS

Kathleen Aguero’s latest book is After That (Tiger

Bark Books). She teaches in the Solstice low-
residency M.F.A. program at Pine Manor College.

Robert Beveridge (he/him) makes noise

(xterminal.bandcamp.com) and writes poetry in
Akron, OH. Recent/upcoming appearances in
Collective Unrest, among others.

Wendy Taylor Carlisle writes in the Arkansas

Ozarks. She has authored four books and five
chapbooks. For more information, her website is
www.wendytaylorcarlisle.com.

Yuan Changming edits Poetry Pacific with Allen

Yuan in Vancouver. Credits include ten Pushcart
nominations & publications in 1,669 literary outlets
across 43 countries.

Dennis Daly has authored seven books of poetry and

poetic translations. His blog site
is: dennisfdaly.blogspot.com.

Marc Darnell is a custodian and online tutor in

Omaha NE. He has published poems in Blue
Unicorn, The Lyric, Ragazine, and elsewhere.

JD Debris’ chapbook is Sparring; albums are Black

Market Organs and Jd Debris Murder Club. NYU
MFA candidate and Goldwater Fellow. Salem State
Alum.
 CONTRI BUTORS

Susan Demarest attends and contributes regularly to

the Church of DSW.

Jim Dunn is the author of Soft Launch(Bootstrap

2008), Convenient Hole(Pressed Wafer 2004), and
Insects In Sex (Fallen Angel Press, 1995).

Michael Estabrook small press poet striving always

for greater clarity and concision rendering language
more succinct and precise a Sisyphean adventure for
sure.

Samuel T. Franklin enjoys making useful things

out of wood scraps and losing staring contests to his
cats. He can be found at
https://samueltfranklin.com/.

Robbie Gamble is left-handed, giving him a direct

neuropathway from pen to right-brain.

Jeff Gately is from here. He’s glad you’re wherever.

Salem Poetry Seminar. Salem State. Broken nose,
broken toes, going to go get that MFA.

Alison Gerber is a poet and congregational minister

from Sydney now Massachusetts.

Maria Mazziotti Gillan is the Founder of the Poetry

Center at Passaic County Community College. She
has published twenty books of and about poetry.
 CONTRI BUTORS

Joey Gould wrote The Acute Avian Heart & has a

blog at joeygouldpoetry.wordpress.com. They can
have little a salami.

Blaine Hebbel Poet, activist and Ipswich native is

fascinated by “The American Voice” and has fought
social injustice since the 1960s.

Mark Hillringhouse is a published poet, essayist,

photographer and documentary filmmaker. Visit his
photography Website:
http://mhillringhouse.zenfolio.com.

Richard Hoffman has published seven books. He is

middle-aged, which means he’ll live to 140. He
teaches at Emerson College.

Mary Ann Honaker is the author of Becoming

Persephone (Third Lung Press, 2019). Her work has
been nominated for a Pushcart prize.

Liz Hutchinson is a writer and horticulturist in

Salem, MA. She wasn’t allowed to listen to rap as a
child.

Mark Jackley lives in Purcellville, VA. His

poems have appeared in Sugar House Review, The
Cape Rock, Talking River, and other journals.
 CONTRI BUTORS

Charlotte Jung is a concrete micro poet and absurd

feminist playwright. In her writing she explores the
basic building blocks of language and life.

Hank Kalet is a poet and journalist, who lives in

New Jersey with his wife and two dogs.

Paxton Knox is a poet and student. They can be

found in Oklahoma, and also on twitter
@paxtonknox.

Kali Lightfoot, Salem MA, a poet who has come

late and happily to poetry. First full-length book
coming out in April, 2021.

Laurinda Lind’s poems are in Blue Earth Review

and other journals. In 2018, she won first place in the
Keats-Shelley Prize for adult poetry.

Lisa Marie Lopez resides in sunny Northern

California with her husband and two box turtles.
She's had several short stories published in various
publications.

Joe McGurn dreams about writing and writes about

his dreams. His visions are made of star stuff, and
the first furtive light of dawn.
 CONTRI BUTORS

Denny E. Marshall has had art, poetry, and fiction

published. Some recently. See more at
www.dennymarshall.com.

Jennie Meyer is a poet and yogi who bends body

and words around, back and in so as to extend out.

Alfred Nicol collaborated with Rhina P. Espaillat

and Kate Sullivan to create Brief Accident of Light:
Poems of Newburyport (Kelsay Books, 2019).

Chris O'Keeffe lives in Salem with his wife, a tiny

dog and a bucket of Wiffle Balls. Talk to him at
christopherokeeffe@gmail.com.

Risa Pappas is a poet, filmmaker, writer, editor,

audiobook narrator, and public speaker. She is a
Senior Editor at Tolsun Books, INC.

Chad Parenteau has work forthcoming in

Résonance. Hopefully, he'll get his collection The
Collapsed Bookshelf out this year.

Jay Pawlyk, an English teacher at St. John's Prep in

Danvers, MA, enjoys cooking, acting, and hanging
out at coffee shops with his kids.

Amanda Reece is a wife, a friend, a cat and human

mom, a former teacher (with the eternal heart of
one), and a logophile.
 CONTRI BUTORS

David Rogers wrote Roots of the Dark Tower: The

Long Quest and Many Lives of Roland, available
from Amazon.

Laura B. Smith is living her dream as an adjunct at

Salem State University. Her creative nonfiction
appears in The Bangalore Review.

Linda Spolidoro is a poet, aggressive melancholic,

and dedicated yogi, who has successfully grown two
human beings that occasionally ask for money.

Matt Stefon lives and writes north of Boston. He

has two chapbooks and 463 wiffle ball home runs.

DeAnna Tibbs covets maps in Oakland, California

and suffers from altitude sickness in her favorite
places. More photos can be seen at
http://www.deannatibbs.com.

Robin Turner is the author of bindweed & crow

poison. Recent work appears in Glass Poets Resist,
Unlost Journal, and Sweet Tree Review.

Cindy Veach is the author of Gloved Against Blood

(CavanKerry Press). She is co-poetry editor of Mom
Egg Review.

David Earl Williams is a native of Kentucky who is

living at the north as a happy deserter. Yep.
 CONTRI BUTORS

“Catfish” John Wojtowicz grew up in the

backwoods that Ginsberg dubbed “nowhere Zen
New Jersey”. Now, he writes poems. Sometimes
people like them. www.catfishjohnpoetry.com.

Amy Zimmerman is a middle school English

teacher who loves to read, write, teach, and drink tea.

Thomas Zimmerman teaches English, directs the

Writing Center, and edits The Big Windows
Review at Washtenaw Community College, in Ann
Arbor, MI.
https://thomaszimmerman.wordpress.com/.
 Molecule

Submissions for our Fall 2020 Issue open

June 1st. See guidelines on our website:

moleculetinylitmag.art.blog