",,"
HAPPILY
EVER
AFTER
slipping underneath
the pain of a lover's
lament
it gets hard out here
once you realize
happily ever after
never existed in
the first place
bleeding hearts
and dark souls
your perfect skin
in another man's
hands
build these walls
until the sun can
no longer be seen
wallow in the guilt
of what could have
been
a beautiful death
one last kiss
a tearful goodbye
somewhere a violin
begins to play
J.J. CAMPBELL
SPECIAL UNITED ILLUSTRATION
MARY ELIZABETH PARKER
BATS POISE
...for dusk to swoop,
soft gray bat.
A palm cupped her, scythe hand
reading the shape of skull, ear,
sloped arm, knotted wrist.
Now the slight press
of the ham of a hand
turns white where
a moon of perspiration
marks the glass of the night table.
Rain falls staccato from the balconies, stops.
Returning from a place of lights
or a dark room with one
other body, a man jingles keys in his pocket: vanishes
into his front door.
Rain begins again, lopped gait
like a stump-legged horse receding.