The Lumberyard

While at AWP I discovered a whole host of new literary journals and small presses. One of the coolest new publications is The Lumberyard, which describes itself as "A twice-yearly letterpress magazine that aims to please." It is a beautiful publication and super hip to boot. Plus it publishes really good stuff like "A Whole Florida" by Jeffrey Bean. Definitely a place I plan on submitting to.

A Whole Florida

Whose fat business is it
lolling on lawns?
What senseless gorgeous song
has the mockingbird got

a hold of--some sonata
streaming from a window
like steam from the bath of the girl who won't
so much as nod at me? I've got a whole Florida

of time on my hands, girl,
a mean hunger for real work.
See these arms? They're broke
if sweat gets you rich. I'd give it all

for an axe to smash the door open
for a bat's music on a ball's skull
for some tool to spill the belly of the whole
goddamn animal of summer on my skin.

This is what I want: to drink it in
a literal way. Then girls and wasps and beetles
would know there's a thing in me
that runs like fire through hair or a barn.

But who's moving? Tonight the moon
will open the bland blossoms of a book,
my TV, the chair's warm cup for my back.
I can't go out slow like moons: I'm gone.

(Jeffrey Bean, from The Lumberyard, issue 1, 2007)