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Henri Cole

Issue August 2011

Immortal

With the press of a button, she appears out of darkness, sitting with one ankle over the other,… More »

Issue June 2010

Pig

Poor patient pig—trying to keep his balance, that’s all, upright on a flatbed ahead of me, somewhere between Pennsylvania and Ohio, enjoying the wind, maybe, against the tufts of hair on the tops of his ears, like a Stoic at the foot of the gallows, or, with my eyes heavy and glazed from caffeine and driving, like a soul disembarking, its flesh probably bacon now tipping into split- pea soup, or, more painful to me, like a man in his middle years…… More »

Issue October 2009

Hens

It’s good for the ego, when I call and they come running, squawking and clucking, because it’s feedtime, and once again I can’t resist picking up little Lazarus, an orange-and-white pullet I adore. “Yes, yes, everything will be okay,” I say to her glaring mongrel face. Come September, she’ll begin to lay the blue-green eggs I love poached. God dooms the snake to taste nothing but the dust and the hen to 4,000 or so…… More »

Issue September 2008

Quai Aux Fleurs

I want to just keep on smearing butter & jam on toast with a blunt knife and licking foam from my espresso cup, while listening to Lizzy and Tricia practice French, but I’m a realist. Even the songbirds have levels of mercury in their blood and feathers. Somewhere, in the brightness against a wall, a soldier crouches— sand in his hair, juices dripping from his body. Here there is joy, like a hole with greenness coming out of it, but there…… More »

Issue July 2005

Birthday

[with audio]… More »

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