Gulf Stream MagazineCollection Title: Catechesis: A Postpastoral Collection Author: Lindsay Lusby Reviewer: Lily Starr It is not often that I open a collection of poetry and am immediately stunned by vivid, color photos of flora, diagrams of human bones, a family of black and white sheep clustered together on the bottom of a page, or pink […]
I wasn’t homeless, just had my mattress in my ’69 Chevy, clothes underneath boxes in the trunk. Everyday stuff in the front-seat backpack. I moved 14 times that year, drinking and drugs but still working my waitress job. I was in motion. Driving, working, hoping to stay with a friend for a night, I was […]
I want you to see (me) Not past, nor through (me) Nor should you pretend (I look as you do) Nor will yourself into believing (I should) No, I want you to see (what’s here) I want your eyes to trace (the structure and dance of my lines the texture and humility their design) Heed […]
 The air tastes of                     spoiled milk                      a day ago something that             was safe         to drink          Its molecules lock onto my skin      follow me back to my hotel   climb into bed with me They resist            hot showers and rainstorms   I want    to crawl away I want     to live               […]
In that wood they built their house. You can’t see the ocean but you can smell the tide. He remembers birch sap under his nails, and April’s light. Foundation, beams, paint. Maybe he wanted to be a painter once. Maybe he danced. Surely he stood in front of the mirror practicing his songs. This is […]
Do everything you would do. Gone crazy in a fortune cookie. Every platitude held a poem. IÂ wrote what cannot be read. Oh you missed it, time. Whole nights. Still need yesterday and forgot where it aches. May keep it real. You may be raining all day. Most of the sights were silent…I sang for your […]
You are the only one of your kind who does not return home to nest, opting, instead, to venture wherever you feel like, beaching new pockets of earth. Maybe your instincts have misfired, a product of mutated genes gone wrong, your idea of home morphed, lost in the translation of generations. Maybe you are too […]
Tomorrow, I’ll plant your post-    sun, bury you in concrete cracks and unlit skies, praying— you’ll bloom still. If you grow, you’ll need    water, but I’ve only known streams of white and yellow, of blur— traffic. Somehow, everyone has a you, a parked    somewhere, a firefly […]
My father taught me to read a map, unfolding its mysterious symbology. Pointing out its legend, starburst beacons became illuminated lighthouses, while colorless roads, unimproved like myself, awaited discovery. Cartographic contours provided relief to the eye, an aesthetic guide for mapping out a life. He noted that north was a spatial orientation that put one […]
I think about guilt, at twenty-three, watching you bang on our dealer’s windows at 4 AM because the baggie ran out. And how, who I’ve become—a Writing Instructor, a Cedar Lake kayaker, an appreciator of pre-war motorcycles—is crazy different. How the poignancy of Maggie Anderson pops like graffiti on fresh brick; Bazooka Joe in my […]
Summer’s growth…Autumn’s harvest! We’re happy to announce the winners of our summer contest – check them out below and click on the links to read their work. This was a special summer for us, as we tapped into our South Florida roots a little more and accepted poems written in English as well as Spanish. […]
Ximena Gomez La casa estaba en silencio. El bombillo a punto de fundirse, Apenas iluminaba el corredor, La escalera al jardÃn. Por allà paseaba ella con el bastón. Ella decÃa que el corredor era Una calle con farolas Llenas de polillas. Bajo la luz mortecina se veÃa Pequeña y frágil. […]
Forester McClatchey Eating in the State of Flowers In Florida, the pigs eat escargot, the sluggish horses nibble Spanish Moss, the manatees hold feasts of watercress, and I can manage only dry Bordeaux before the steamed ricotta, basil, dough, and garlic of my favorite pizza place. I eat and watch the alligators pass along the […]
DOMINIQUE CHRISTINA is an award-winning poet, author, educator, and activist. She has authored four poetry collections: The Bones, The Breaking, The Balm: A Colored Girl’s Hymnal (2014), They Are All Me (2015), This Is Woman’s Work (2015), and her latest, Anarcha Speaks: A History in Poems (2018). She holds five national poetry slam titles in four years, including […]
After finding a decade-old letter in the Gulf Stream editorial office from an inmate asking about free journal samples for submission guidelines, Samantha Leon has teamed up with GS-affiliated and independent writers alike to contribute to prison education. Over the next few weeks, Leon will keep a PO Box open for book donations, which will […]
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