Pinpricks of Light

Poetry by Shari Caplan, Carlie Hoffman & Kimberly Ann Southwick

Shari Caplan

Under winter’s poised boot, 

a field leaping with insects. 

A fence keeps horses shy of us. 

The white one pities my persistence, 

but does not deign to nuzzle. 

The man who fixed a camo throne 

ten feet up in the sycamore talked 

exclusively to you, while we sipped 

syrupy wine and pretended to like it. 

The upturned rowboat by the house 

would hold us, were it warmer, 

and not punctured. 


(“Pennsylvania Wedding”)

CARLIE HOFFMAN

The orchard rinses white with tiny bones 

until there is nothing left but a wish 

to drag out mice curled deep in the tunnels 

and string them from a Sycamore. 

Tonight the young empty themselves 

in a football field, behind bleachers— 

their beautiful hands, ribs glossed by 

stadium light, then, slowly, as if still…

(“Overnight”)

In the middle of the night my sisters dig out 

the pale birds graphed along the waterside 

and fix them to a willow. 

Relax, they say, it only gets worse. 

Last season’s nests collapse 

beneath our palms, as we kneel for the angel 

who bargained his way to Anchorage, exploded 

the moment he landed, and became a gull 

rounding the wharf like a conjurer.

(“Without Centrifuge”)

Kimberl y Ann Southwick

they cut the screen into boxed parts sometimes like / now a small rectangle of alpine skiing / as if I care about  that / appears / I do care about Alexia Paganini even though, Johnny tells me, / her triple toe triple toe is the  easiest triple combination we’ll see — / Tara points out switching what country you skate for is difficult / I  mistype company for country, that’s late capitalism for you / I still can’t help but wonder why someone would  do that / would / represent her dad’s home country instead of where she lives / is it a political decision a  business decision both other / Johnny seems to think it’s about / creating a skating legacy / how the people of  Switzerland feel about it / I want to know that 

(“Alexia Paganini…”)

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