Below follows a selection from our upcoming second issue due out later this month: “RC and Little Faye” by Elijah Burrell.

RC and Little Faye

Look at them pretty cottonseeds fly,
says little Faye as the Buick pushes its noise
across a peanut field off 77.

RC twiddles the radio dial, a spit
bottle in his crotch, says,
Girl you better hold on them plums.

And he’s right.  The little ripe dandies are rolling
over the floorboard.  Little Faye’s got a necklace
made from teeth she’s been saving since she was six.

It swings every time she bends over to finger
at a goose plum.  RC eyes her, says,
Hey baby, get me a barley beverage.

And she does.  They roll a few miles with nothing
but the static pulse of Waylon to keep them.
At Owl Hill, they hop out and sit on the hood.

I am the song of the drunkards, he says with a belch.
There’s a smell pile up the road that might be a cat
or a coon.  Whatever, it met some dark end by tire.

There’s some gunshots through the woods.  There’s
a breeze that lifts little Faye’s hair off her shoulders
and makes her look like a fairy.

RC wants to pop her top off, wants to drink
that measly mouth in.  They eat the goose plums.
They watch the cottonseeds float by.

Where they heading, Old Man?  Home? She says.
Same as us, Sugar, he says.
Drifting home to Beulah Land.

Copyright © 2011 Elijah Burrell. Used under special license from the author.

For more about Muscle & Blood, see our About page.

Below follows a selection from our upcoming second issue due out later this month: Part II of Ted Jean’s five-part poetry suite, “Bible Stories.”

II

Daniel and the Lions

When Daniel fired up the truck that morning,
ostensibly to find coffee, he was troubled
by the radio report that astronomers now asserted
not ninety, but on the order of one hundred twenty-five
billion galaxies abuzz about the universe, some of which
contained with great confidence easily one hundred
billion stars, driving, not the likelihood, but virtual certainty
of life out there, contemporaneous and possibly sexy.

At this time in his life, Daniel was already encircled
by lions, that had apparently succeeded in taking his wife,
and were doubtless responsible for the disappearance of
the coyotes under the pool house.

Daniel cradles his coffee in his pickup in the parking lot
above the river.  No, he would ransom the universe.

Copyright © 2011 Ted Jean. Used under special license from the author.

For more about Muscle & Blood, see our About page.

Cover Art

• Leila Fortier

Additional Visual Art

1. Kristin Fouquet
2. Leila Fortier

Nonfiction

1. Benjamin C. Krause (Editorial)
2. Benjamin C. Krause (Book Review)
3. Christina Low (Creative Nonfiction)

Flash Fiction

1. William J. Feddigan
2. Dylan Gilbert

Short Fiction

1. Georgine Getty
2. Neil Richter
3. Terry Sanville
4. J.J. Steinfeld
5. Curtis Bradley Vickers

Poetry

1. Emma Bartholomew
2. Lisa Marie Basile (2 poems)
3. Elijah Burrell (3 poems)
4. Jim Culleny
5. Matt Dennison
6. Kenneth P. Gurney
7. Ted Jean (5-part poetry suite)
8. James Keane
9. Austin Kerswill [In Memoriam]
10. Britt Melewski
11. Allison Meraz
12. Meryn Shireen Shapurji
13. A.K. Williams
14. Ron Yazinski