All Poetry – Per Contra

Below is a list of poetry published in Per Contra since Issue 37. Older work can be found in the archive.

Only the footsteps, light
as rain, tell him she’s there.
Keep dreaming, Orpheus,
you’re almost at the top.

Romancing Taxis by Elizabeth J. Coleman

I step outside, call out to one
hail it, beautiful

sunflower.

The Piano by Stephen Gibson

in the lesbian bar (inked onto the photograph)
is to the viewer’s left, but is not being played;

Rossetti’s Preliminary Sketch of Elizabeth Siddal as Beata Beatrix by Stephen Gibson

When she posed as Beatrice, she probably
wasn’t thinking he would use this sketch of her
posthumously for the painting because she’d
have overdosed,...

Washington’s Crossing by Ernest Hilbert

The railway bridge looms above the river’s
Slow black, a stone Roman aqueduct,

From the Balcony on Heavy Metal Tribute Night at the Trocadero by Ernest Hilbert

Darkness throbs below. Four teenaged women
Execute thrash metal tributes, routines of
Accomplished ferocity,

Summer Scream by Ernest Hilbert

Dracula, done with his shift,
Sips a Schlitz under the boardwalk.

Mountain Retreats by Colette Inez

The Dipper fills up with days of being
noticed, opinions listened to,
talk of naming the moon.

American Revolutions by Sarah Kennedy

Well, no one would mistake it for a farm
house—Ash Lawn down the road or, God forbid,
an ordinary mansion.

The Home Front by Sarah Kennedy

But why next door to the last house? Unless
she liked to stand upstairs in the new one,

A May Poem by Sarah Kennedy

Under a roof of rhododendron, in
nearly-summer, and the soft rain sounded
on the leaves,

light and dark by Donald Kuspit

luminous in the eye,
the budding innocence
anoints memory,

wondrous beloved by Donald Kuspit

you've risen again,
the last mirage of meaning,

high and low by Donald Kuspit

for every high
there's a low,
and below
more suffering,

Instruments of the Home by Salgado Maranhão
Translated by Alexis Levitin

the window of the apartment spies
on the home

The Poet and Things by Salgado Maranhão
Translated by Alexis Levitin

things want to flash through
the poem

Mere Honor by Salgado Maranhão
Translated by Alexis Levitin

losing my shine, I turned sober.
dry, alone with myself, left-over.

Unnighting by Salgado Maranhão
Translated by Alexis Levitin

sun still nocturnal

Who to Blame by Ed Meek

When I fractured my knee I became one
of the lame. You see us on the streets,

On the Edge by Ed Meek

Lizzie must have known it was high enough before she jumped from the 7th floor of her apartment in Paris. Experts claim a psychotic break from reality occurs suddenly sometimes, even in middle age

Summer 1985 by Charles Rafferty

That was the season I wrote everything in Lucida, instead of Times New Roman.

Shadow by Charles Rafferty

Darkness that is me,
recognizable
only in profile,

Alzheimer’s by Don Riggs

If the eyes are the windows of the soul,
she stands there, inside, leaning on the sill,
watching, unable to name,

Watchband by Don Riggs

A wristwatch is a handcuff, it shackles
you to the consciousness of time;

Second Guessing by Don Riggs

Why is it that men--I should only speak
for myself now, but a woman once told
me the same thing

FROM WORK IN PROGRESS "WHICH TRIBE DO YOU BELONG TO" by Mark Rudman

Luck: to be paired with the unknown woman,
welcoming expression, blond, same age, still quite—

in her tank top and yoga pants she was born to wear,
and we’re instructed for the assisted back bend

The Black Panther by David R. Slavitt

A pink glow suffuses the cumulus,
tricked out with a delicate fringe of lace at the far
horizon in the east.

Flash and Glow by Lee Slonimsky

I have returned,
alone, years later, on a business trip--

Whitman, Not a Cardiologist by Lee Slonimsky

I never knew the way the earth’s pulse beat
until I stood long hours at this spout

Flower by Lee Slonimsky

These thin blue petals crowd together so,
it’s hard to count them.

Pretty Girl by Lewis Turco

I asked Jack Maier, "Who is that pretty girl
Up there beside the schoolhouse?" "Stay away
From her!" he said.

Po’ Poe by Lewis Turco

Who's that pecking at my door?"
"I'm the bird called 'Never More!"

Gray by Lee Upton

To drink in light or filter light,
rain streaming against the credit union,

Holly by Lee Upton

That day
the holly was hers,
the holly shining
with red berries,

At the Turn of the Road by R. K. Biswas

Is it dusk already? The doves
on the electric pole must have gone home.

Oriental Darter Birds by R. K. Biswas

Something disturbs.
There is a movement
in the rushes and waterweeds. And you

Petrichor by R. K. Biswas

A few days before she leaves, she teaches me
a new word. Petrichor. And when I forget

Familiarity by Astrid Cabral
Translated by Alexis Levitin

No sooner do you touch the trophy
than the brightness dims.

Left-over by Astrid Cabral
Translated by Alexis Levitin

And the day arrives
(ill-omened or tokening relief?)
when you attend a feast

Hormonal Snares by Astrid Cabral
Translated by Alexis Levitin

You turn the corner
and no lascivious gaze
envelops you from breast to thigh.

Ancient Scenario by Astrid Cabral
Translated by Alexis Levitin

The outizeiro tree beside the wall
has only grown a bit.

Death By Water by Astrid Cabral
Translated by Alexis Levitin

The first time
no one saw the danger.

BRAMBU DREZI, Book III by Jack Foley

heaven is near
I spent a few hours last night

Protest by Stephen Gibson

It was a sperm whale in the center
of the piazza being hauled up by a boy

6pm Vinyasa flow by Nathalie Goykhman

Before the yoga class begins,
I greet the students at the door.

Half Lord of the Fishes by Nathalie Goykhman

She preferred to unroll her mat
rather than unrolling her tongue while on a couch

Blossoming in Padmasana by Nathalie Goykhman

Discouraged by her nine-to-five in class she hopes to bud.
Padmasana: that which is born out of the muck and mud.

Bakasana: Crow or Crane by Nathalie Goykhman

The instructor tells me to
“lean into the discomfort.”

Celestial Mechanics by Nathalie Goykhman

Ardha chandrasana has been a mystery,
a penumbra. I enter the
pose with radiant strength, my standing leg lean and

The Jackpine by Jonathan Hazelton

I climbed it once, jumped up to a broken limb,
Hauled myself up and climbed high enough

Stroll by Jonathan Hazelton

We say they pass away as if
Clouds scudded over distant hills
And disappeared beyond the trees,

Error by Strummer Hoffston

Two poets are having dinner
at the end of a long, tedious marriage.

Flying Home From Burma by Colette Inez

Crash landing into a rice paddy,
through flames our Buddhist neighbor
pulls his wife from the plane.

Knotholes by Colette Inez

The knotholes hear our confession.

Buoy by Carol Lipszyc

Dark steering of love along the curve
and surge

E. B. by R. T. Smith

Emily Brontë, passion’s candle
but inclined to excess of brevity –

Back In Alabama by R. T. Smith

Throwing horseshoes alone, I ponder local history:

Hope again by Phil Sultz

Now the thinking is to omit the jug
head procedure, work the surface as fact

Endure by Phil Sultz

Love exchanged with prickly care intended to suffice

Remembering Zoltan Sepeshy 1898-1974 by Phil Sultz

A whole string of good yantefs, bravissimos,
and skol to seal the deal. I'm trying to get away

Hands by Phil Sultz

His roofer hands are like
his fathers, over-sized for

Assumptions by Lewis Turco

Benny Hill said never to assume,
Never, never, never to assume

Alfred Moskowitz, R.I.P. by Lewis Turco

When last I visited Alfred and his wife
We spent the evening talking about his art.

Dreaming Stories by Lewis Turco

I like to feed my nightmares haythorn straw

Staring by Lewis Turco

I am sitting in my recliner, staring,
staring around at my room.

Smallage by Lewis Turco

The serpent was a liar. Eve swallowed it,
Core and all, every jot and tittle.

The Journey by Lewis Turco

The world is too much with us. Sooner or later
We have to let it go, and when we do

The sphinx followed the footsteps of the wanderer by Carmen Váscones
Translated by Alexis Levitin

she conceived an enigma
she opened her palate with a slash

Enigma anticipates its existence and its deciphering by Carmen Váscones
Translated by Alexis Levitin

it comes before the sphinx itself and the solver of the riddle

The sphinx begins its oracles by Carmen Váscones
Translated by Alexis Levitin

enigma
will come with its indifference.

A cloud of sand by Carmen Váscones
Translated by Alexis Levitin

A cloud of sand
in secret rises from the sea

There’s Always a Viper at the Wedding Feast by Elizabeth J. Coleman