The Bookends Review

– Mark Slauter

… ...continue reading

The old man and his old dog walk slowly,
their summer shadows stretched out long
ahead of them.
Behind them, the sun fights to remain in the sky
even though it has lost this contest
for billions of years and will soon,
in a green flash,  surrender to the night,
only to rise up in the morning,
born again.

For the old man, it is a short walk
at the end of a long day and he will,
like the sun, soon be on the other side
of the world, out of sight and in darkness.
For now, though, there will be shared food,
the evening news,
and time to rest in the chair by the window
while he watches his old dog’s flank
rise and fall with each breath.… ...continue reading

Two bald eagles soared overhead, circling each other as the afternoon sun started its decline, and we were on our backs, admiring the day, listening to the water clap against the hull of the Chubasco. The docks were still, and we looked at the row of sailboats bobbing in rhythm, slowed by the wall of tires and old wood that surrounded the marina. No one was in sight. The eagles flew to the wooded hillside across the bay, a fish caught in the talons of one.

“Do you think it’ll pick up? The wind?” Mary shifted her back with the hull’s subtle movement. Her brown hair, long as ever, splayed against the dirty white fiberglass.

“Eventually.” I stood and stretched. Eventually, this damned boat will be out of our hands.… ...continue reading

Dominque Carson is an award-winning community activist, journalist, researcher, and massage therapist. She’s written for NBC News, Ebony, Soultrain.com, and Singersroom.com, among other outlets, and has interviewed a wide range of artists, including Charlie Wilson, Patti Labelle, Tito Jackson, The Isley Brothers, and Regina Belle. Recently, she published a biography called Jon B: Are You Still Down? (which examines the life of R&B icon Jon B). She’s also working on a journaling project regarding the National Women’s History Museum, as well as her next book, The Invisible Betty Boop.

In this episode of Cover to Cover with . . ., Editor-in-Chief Jordan Blum speaks with Carson about her various career paths; her love of music, writing, and helping others; and how she’s been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.… ...continue reading

Their rakes lay forgotten.
Stephen runs, red knitted cap,
red cheeks, the little girls
chasing, one wearing a brace
on her leg. They dash
through cut-glass air to tumble
in the cold flakes of brilliant color
piled thick from the woods …
too many … like trying
to rake in all the stars
and clear the night sky.
But we tried, all of us,
’til our arms ached
even into sleep. In those days
we burned great smoldering heaps,
and the air was scented
with smoke until after first snow.
Stephen is ever aloft
in this photo, one leg kicked back,
one leaping ahead,
and nothing, not one thing,
I promise myself,
has changed in all these years.

– Carol Hamilton… ...continue reading

           My brother has a tattoo of a dark cloud on the inside of his left forearm, though if you ask him he will deny the fact that it is a cloud at all. When I look at it, all I see is swirled up ink.

            “I don’t know, it just looks cool,” he’ll say to anyone who asks what it is or what it means, and I can’t help but think of Oscar Wilde with his theory of aestheticism. “Art for art’s sake,” he’d say, and my brother would probably agree, even though he probably also wouldn’t entirely know what he was agreeing with.

            When visiting our grandmother he covers it up with sleeves, knowing that she’d likely curse him to hell if she ever caught sight of it, and I can imagine he probably fears she would actually have the power to carry that out.… ...continue reading

i send my assembly-line boy back:

reset his factory settings, my hands remember how he likes it

wipe his rosy cheeks, flick his pink nipples one last time

commit his little moans to memory, his blue eyes glowing with promise

take his box out of storage, a hasbro grave,

geoffrey’s gone like god & good fortune

admire his bulging cow eyes & long lean legs, achingly beautiful smoothness

straighten his white shirt, lower him into the abyss

lay packing peanuts on him (there’s a penis joke here),

make sure the plastic isn’t suffocating

i’ll miss him, i’m sure

but summer’s coming,

& doesn’t it just eat at you when a boy is too perfect?

– Michael Chang… ...continue reading