Art: "Everything, Everywhere Almost All The Time" by Robin Echo Young

Poetry: "Union of Heaven and Earth" by Mary Lou Buschi

It’s an afterschool program for the uniquely abled where I teach Mahi to make a card. It’s the month of grey snow and forcing bulbs, the shortest of months. He uses very little water, as he swirls his brush in the scarlet paint wanting the blazoned heart to shock with pulsating brightness. He adds pink lips, a sticker from a Family Dollar. “Who is this for?” I ask. He continues to work. “Nobody,” he says. His right knee moves back and forth, as he whispers addresses, train lines, connecting buses across town. “Mahi, who would you like to send your heart to?” I ask. “Nobody,” he repeats, and I remember what Odysseus said as he stabbed the cyclops in the eye, “I’m Nobody!” And the cyclops screamed, “Nobody has wounded me!” No one came to his rescue, as his one eye sizzled around a stake until it burst. 

 

Dear Somebody,

 

Nobody is asking

         for open arms, a heart,

                                                                           or to be mine.

 

 

Published February 12th 2023

Mary Lou Buschi’s poems have appeared in many literary journals such as Radar, The Laurel Review, The Shore, Bluestem, and West Trestle. She has poems forthcoming in Ploughshares and Sweet. Her second full length collection, Paddock, was published by Lily Poetry Review Books in 2021.

Based in Borrego Springs California, artist Robin Young works in mixed media focusing mostly on collage and contemporary art making. Her focus on collage art using magazine clippings, masking tape, wallpaper, jewelry, feathers, foil etc. allows her to develop deep into the whimsical and intuitive.

Analog Paper Collage 8”x10” 2023