Volume 24, Issue 2
editorial staff
readers
Featuring work byPOETRY Rae Armantrout • Patricia Clark • Stephanie Dugger • Lynnell Edwards • Nancy Eimers • Kate Gleason • David Dodd • Lee Christina Mengert • Darren Morris • Joan I Siegel FICTION Dinah Cox • Casey Lefante • Don Shea • Alex Stein NONFICTION Brenda Miller • Carrie Shipers • Marilyn Steele INTERVIEWS Rae Armantrout • Christina Mengert • Brenda Miller ART Rachel Hall Kirk
Stephanie Dugger
A bolt of lightning moving down the sky
is enough. The plastic smell
of conditioned air
and the tick-tick of my dog
breathing beside me—
I was not always this___.
A grizzly in Yellowstone
digs under rocks to find
cutworm moths—spots like still eyes.
The moths fly up when disturbed,
and land in swarms on the bear’s arms.
He licks them from his fur, the dust of their wings
covering his tongue.
He watches squirrels stash pine-nuts
so he can steal them just before hibernating. The diet
is elk calf after waking,
then salmon, the moths, and finally
the nuts.
There are few inconsistencies here.
I have imagined what it would be like,
and decided I would want to be ripped,
too—to know you. You worry
this might not be normal. I say
you run the risk of burning
when you breathe that hard.
READ MORE>Rachel Hall Kirk is an Associate Professor of Drawing in the Department of Art + Design at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, WA. She earned an MFA in drawing and painting in 2004 from The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and BFA from Austin Peay State University. Her abstract mixed-media artwork, which has been exhibited nationally, is based on patterns found in nature and combines elements of both drawing and painting. She currently serves on the Board of Directors at Gallery One Visual Arts Center in Ellensburg. In addition to teaching and creating new artwork, Rachel is an avid amateur gardener and dog and cat mom. While she finds very little joy in the act of running, she loves reaching goals and is proud to have completed six half-marathons.
news & events
contests
Zone 3 Press sponsors two book competitions: The Zone 3 Press First Book Award in Poetry and The Zone 3 Press Creative Nonfiction Book Award. Winners receive $1,000 and publication of their book, as well as an invitation to give a joint reading at Austin Peay State University with the contest judge.
Zone 3 Press publications are made available from the Zone 3 Store and your favorite booksellers.
Featuring work byPOETRY Rae Armantrout • Patricia Clark • Stephanie Dugger • Lynnell Edwards • Nancy Eimers • Kate Gleason • David Dodd • Lee Christina Mengert • Darren Morris • Joan I Siegel FICTION Dinah Cox • Casey Lefante • Don Shea • Alex Stein NONFICTION Brenda Miller • Carrie Shipers • Marilyn Steele INTERVIEWS Rae Armantrout • Christina Mengert • Brenda Miller ART Rachel Hall Kirk
Stephanie Dugger
A bolt of lightning moving down the sky
is enough. The plastic smell
of conditioned air
and the tick-tick of my dog
breathing beside me—
I was not always this___.
A grizzly in Yellowstone
digs under rocks to find
cutworm moths—spots like still eyes.
The moths fly up when disturbed,
and land in swarms on the bear’s arms.
He licks them from his fur, the dust of their wings
covering his tongue.
He watches squirrels stash pine-nuts
so he can steal them just before hibernating. The diet
is elk calf after waking,
then salmon, the moths, and finally
the nuts.
There are few inconsistencies here.
I have imagined what it would be like,
and decided I would want to be ripped,
too—to know you. You worry
this might not be normal. I say
you run the risk of burning
when you breathe that hard.
READ MORE>Rachel Hall Kirk is an Associate Professor of Drawing in the Department of Art + Design at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, WA. She earned an MFA in drawing and painting in 2004 from The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and BFA from Austin Peay State University. Her abstract mixed-media artwork, which has been exhibited nationally, is based on patterns found in nature and combines elements of both drawing and painting. She currently serves on the Board of Directors at Gallery One Visual Arts Center in Ellensburg. In addition to teaching and creating new artwork, Rachel is an avid amateur gardener and dog and cat mom. While she finds very little joy in the act of running, she loves reaching goals and is proud to have completed six half-marathons.
