Art: "On the Nature of Daylight" by Kathleen Markowitz

Poetry: "Lullaby for the Sixth Extinction" by Julia B Levijne

In the purgatory of whatever paradise remains,

           I wait for my daughter’s call

 

in my garden after rain, the sun a lit match

            held to the gas stove of spring,

 

daffodils sizzling yellow, the swell of tulips

            shoved through ground.

 

The future stalls, sends a violent ache

           into the beyond, our planet’s next

 

apocalypse hanging in the air. Meanwhile

            I’m ready to burn carbon

 

100 miles to the hospital any day, at any hour,

            my grandson’s mutated cells

 

multiplying alongside his small not-yets,

            his yes or no. Here,

 

wind stirs the grass around our pond, breeding

            mosquito fish, tiny frogs.

 

Deep in a world in limbo, beauty bewilders me.

            It’s hard to love what may die

 

too soon. And yet time drags on, this baby thrown

            into civilization’s cradle

 

rock-a-byeing on a bent and breaking bough.

         All of us repeating aloud,

 

It will be okay. Who wants to be the one to ask,

         And if it falls?

Published June 27th 2025

Julia B Levine is well-awarded and published, including a Northern California Book Award in Poetry for her fourth collection, Small Disasters Seen in Sunlight (LSU Press, 2014), a 2024 Pushcart Prize, and recently, first place in the 2025 Terrain Poetry Contest, as well as a 2022 Poet Laureate Fellowship from the American Academy of Poetry for her work in helping young teens create resiliency in the face of climate change through science, technology and poetry.

Kathleen Markowitz studied art at Virginia Commonwealth University, The New York School of Visual Arts Study Abroad Program, and The Accademia Di Belle Arti Pietro Vannucci, Perugia, Italy. Her paintings were included in the United Stated Embassies in Hong Kong and Pretoria, South Africa and the Tashkent 5th International Biennale of Contemporary Art in Uzbekistan. Her fellowships include The Virginia Center for Creative Arts in Amherst, Va. Collections include the Federal Reserve Bank and Capital One Corporate Collection. She is represented by Quirk Gallery. www.kathleenmarkowitz.com