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      • AN APPRECIATION OF THE SCHOLAR, ADALBERT by Vincent Mannings
      • ONE PARTING, YIELDING LINE by M. Ann Reed
      • THE RIVER FISHER'S DAUGHTER by Kirk Marshall
      • BEYOND THE GREAT HORIZON WALL by Kenny Kuhn
      • BLOOM by Michael Gessner
      • SOMETHING, I KNOW NOT WHAT by Ray Corvi
      • OF BUTLERS AND SPIES by Austin Barnes
      • WHAT THE FIRST GOD SPOKE I THINK WAS SUN by Richard Hague
      • SEELENKNARREN by Lorenz Poeschl
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      • DECEMBER 25, 2022 by Aletha Irby
      • A SUMMARY OF 'A BRIEF HISTORY OF NASOCARPIA' by Peter Arscott
      • CARRYING CAPACITY by Charles Byrne
      • THE MUNE MONOLOGUES by Thomas Townsley
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      • VARIATION ON A THEME & POSE POEM by Norman Minnick
      • THE MAP OF YOUR HANDS UNFOLDS A DOVE by Vikki C.
      • HISTORIES OF THE BEARD by Richard Hague
      • ILLUSTRATED COMMENTS ON THE APOPHATAPATAPHYSICAL METRICS OF COSMIC HUMOR by edo strannikov
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      • ORANGES by John Moody
      • THE LACONIA by Wendy Webb
      • BREATH OF THE TEXT by Jeremiah Cassar Scalia
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      • TO THOSE FOUND DEAD IN CHIMNEYS by R.W. Plym
      • WHAT TO EXPECT OF LIFE by Steven G. Kellman
      • IF IT WERE DRAWN by Jessica Reed
      • BLOOD IN THE ORCHIDS by Amanda Kotch
      • CORNELIUS RADHOPPER by Peter Arscott
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      • ANIMAL INHERITANCE by akhir ali
      • THAT DUDE DERRIDA by Daniel Klawitter
      • FLAT-EARTH FRED by Phil Gallos
      • THE MYSTERY OF THE MISSING SEMICOLON by Orana Loren
      • MY BALDERDASHERY by Eric Paul Shaffer
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      • MIRROR by Joshua Kepfer
      • CUE FALLING PIANO by D.C. Weaver
      • ANTON AND THE ECHO by Cristina Otero
      • THAT WHICH WE TRULY DON'T KNOW by JOACHIM GLAGE
      • CONGRATULATIONS by Alan Sincic
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      • NEVER, NEVER LAND, MY SHIP by Mark Pearce
      • THE SMILE OF MONA LISA by Fatima Ijaz
      • OUROBOROS by Esme Sammons
      • THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA by Margaret D. Stetz
      • SNICKER-SNACK by Bruce Meyer
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      • THE OWLET AND THE TURTLE by Greg Sendi
      • BRACTS and other poems by Nathaniel Calhoun
      • ANSWERS TO NON-EXISTENT QUESTIONS and other poems by Kevin Griffith
      • NEVERENDING KNOT by Jodie Dalgleish
      • LEARNING TO WALK by Jodie Dalgleish
      • OVERSOUL by P.S. Lutz
    • AZURE Volume 5, Issue 3 >
      • MAP OF MEMORY by Jesse Schotter
      • BISMILLAH by Abby Minor
      • MICROMORTS by Veronica Tang
      • LOVE LETTER TO LANGUAGE: AN ABECEDARIAN by Saramanda Swigart
      • IF YOU WERE ALL WATER by M. Ann Reed
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      • CONTRA FORMALISME by Leland Seese
      • DRUNKEN MAN ON A BICYCLE by Dan Butterworth
      • WOLF TICKETS THROUGH THE FERAL WINTER by Kirk Marshall
      • SYLVANUS, BARD by Marc Lerner
      • THE LOOKING GLASS OF ARTHUR GORDON PYM by Frank Meola
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      • INTIMATE THINGS by Laylage Courie
      • A SERIES OF PUNCTUATION by Hajar Hussaini
      • ROT AND GLORIANA by Laurel Miram
      • BLUES ON RED by Elie Doubleday
      • MY FICTION: REMEMBERING 50 YEARS OF WORK by Richard Kostelanetz
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      • ENDNOTES FOR AN ALLOCUTION by Peter Freund
      • UKEMI (and other poems) by Nicole Vento
      • MEMORANDUM ON DESIRE by Laylage Courie
      • THE HOLYWOOD DEUTERONOMY by Jim Shankman
      • AT THE MAD HATTER-MARCH HARE ART GALLERY (and other poems) by M. Ann Reed
    • AZURE Volume 4, Issue 3 >
      • THE MACHINE, STOLEN FIRE, and PERFORMANCE by Vivek Narayan
      • FIRST FRUITS by Stephen Massimilla
      • ONCE UPON A TOMORROW-TIME by Christopher Routheut
      • YIELD LIGHT OF WAY by Ken Goodman
      • SEVEN TALES by Sara Streett
    • AZURE Volume 4, Issue 2 >
      • THE PUNCH-CARD CIPHERS by DF Short
      • SHE WAS THE FIRST TO GIVE A TOAST by Kelli Russell Agodon
      • HABLU L-WARIDI by Jesse Hilson
      • THE KEY TO DREAMS by Sean S. Bentley
      • SOFA, SO GOOD, SORT OF by Remy Ngamije
    • AZURE Volume 4, Issue 1 >
      • STAMPING THE DEAD by Habib Mohana
      • LEGS by A. Joachim Glage
      • I THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX by Heikki Huotari
      • LUŽÁNKY by V.B. Borjen
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        • TALES UNSUITABLE FOR CHILDREN by Devon Ortega
        • WAKE UP by JayJay Conrad
        • AMONG THE MEN IS APRIL by Logo Wei
        • SWEET by Melinda Giordano
        • BLACK ROSES by Osamase Ekhator
        • MEET ME TONIGHT ON METAPHOR STREET by Vivek Narayan
      • AZURE Volume 3, Issue 3 >
        • MENAGE A TROIS, WITH HORSE by Don Dussault
        • THE BLACK by Ben Colandrea
        • BLUE SKY LANGUAGE by Christien Gholson
        • UN DETECTIVE VIEJO by Franco Strong
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        • THE CLEANSING by Linda Dennard
        • SHUFFLE by Debbie Fox
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Back to AZURE (Volume 3, Issue 3)

Blue Sky Language

By Christien Gholson
Picture

BLUE SKY LANGUAGE
​There is guilt. I found the drying body of a blue-collared lizard in a cleft of sandstone. I was not the one who killed it. It was already dead when I found it. I stood vigil with the lizard under the sun - lone standing mesas scattered across sage flats, long shadows across sand. The ghost of the lizard followed me home. I am not saying this from inside a dream.
 
There is joy. Sometimes, the lizard's ghost speaks into my left ear in a language that can only be described as various shades of blue. It is a language of unbearable beauty, of the blue sky itself – the language of the eye, roving from east to west, horizon to horizon. I am not saying this from inside a dream, I whisper those blue words into holes in stone every chance I get. 
 
There is death. A blue-collared lizard sits on a low stone wall, stares at me. Sun on his back, he wants to transmute stone into skin, skin into stone. I say: "I'm sorry, but I did not kill him." I know this has nothing to do with this moment, this lizard. I am insisting on my innocence for things that I have not done because of all the things I have. I am not saying this from inside a dream; I too, want to transmute stone into skin and skin into stone. 
​
GRAND CANYON
​I hit a traffic jam a couple miles out from the Desert View Visitor Center. When I finally reached the center’s parking lot, the car was overheating. I found a parking space, thinking I’d hang out for a while, let the car cool down. There was a cafeteria, a gift shop. And people, so many people. I wandered down to an old stone tower that had a view of the southern half of the canyon. The scene had no effect. I felt I was in a theater, watching a movie of the Grand Canyon. The only way I can be saying this is from deep inside a dream - how else?
 
Dejected, I sat down at the edge of the parking lot, about ten feet from an edge with no railing, beneath a dead tree. The bleached branches stretched out into space. A couple of families stood about two feet from the edge, talking, laughing. They obviously were traveling together. The boys kept pretending to push each other over the edge. A girl that looked like she belonged to one of the families – eleven, twelve – stood near the tree, eating an ice cream, eyeing the boys with disgust. She eventually turned her back on them. You can see how all this was taking place inside a dream.
 
A raven landed on one of the branches above me, focused on the cone in the girl's hand, then lifted off – a huge pterodactyl shadow in the dust below – and floated over her head. The girl looked up at the bird, screamed, and fell backwards, towards the cliff edge. The raven plucked up what was left of the cone and flew off. The girl started to cry, hysterical. Inside the dream, a mother ran up, comforted her. The boys smirked, inside the dream.
 
It was clear she wasn’t crying about the raven or the lost cone or the pain from the tumble. Even though she was at least ten feet away from the rim, I know that for a second, as she fell to the ground, she thought she was about to fly out into that vast space. Listening to the panic in her cries, I suddenly saw it, felt it – the fantastic terror of the drop. All my organs rose toward my throat, toward my own scream, and I knew that if I got up, ran towards the edge, threw myself over, I would fall for centuries, past the jagged levels of stone, exposed by floods 70 million years gone, to be reborn as a black feather resting in the eye socket of a mule skull.

​
CHATTER
​A yellow school bus passes. All the figures inside are wearing orange jumpsuits, black hoods. This is the fashion. I am not saying this from inside a dream. I have heard cries rising up from beneath the floorboards near dawn.
 
In the plaza, an old man suddenly turned, looked behind him, his eyes full of fear, as if he’d seen a ghost. I scanned the crowd, trying to see what he’d seen. I saw people with shopping bags, sitting on benches, enjoying the sun, talking on their phones. Chatter between satellites, business as usual. But he saw something, I know he did. I am not saying this from inside a dream. I have cut the lines between cause and effect into my skin with the edge of a black aspen leaf.
 
Today, the man who usually hawks newspapers on the hospital road is handing out stones. I am not saying this from inside a dream. A crushed black snake on the road’s shoulder stirs, slips into high grass (Another dead soldier; another dead civilian; both trying to be seen). I am not saying this from inside a dream. Drop sage-dust into an open flame, it sparks like gunpowder.
​
LAUNDROMAT
I watch an old woman load a washer. When she’s done, she sits next to me, hands in her lap, head down. I hear a voice inside me say: “You are a shoe buried in snow.” Then: “The old lady is the bird that never finds the shoe buried in snow.” The voice sounds like my dead cousin Sophia. She was always saying things like that. I'm telling you this from inside a dream.
           
A four-year-old boy follows his father through the glass doors, breaks off to the video game console next to the soap dispenser, pushing buttons, swinging the joystick back and forth. The father loads a washer, sits down on the other side of the old woman, and pulls out his cell phone. Sophia snickers: “He is young enough to believe that this is not where he will be in twenty years. You thought the same, didn’t you?” Sophia talks to me from the inside of the inside of a dream. It's all very meta.
           
I stand, stretch, and wander down the long wall of dryers to the bathroom. Inside, I run the water, read the writing on the wall. I’m not here to do laundry. I have no laundry. I’m just marking time, trying to keep warm. When I finally open the door, step out, I see the old woman is still staring down at the floor, hands in her lap. What can she possibly be thinking? Whatever it is, it is happening from inside a dream…so, who cares?
 
“No matter what the old woman is thinking,” Sophia says, “beneath those thoughts she is occupied by what will never happen, what can never be attained.”
​
GOOD GUYS, BAD GUYS
​A short burst of the freight train’s horn arcs over me. There is a stuffed lynx in a glass box down the road, in a restaurant in Ely. There are photos of actors from nineteen thirties westerns on the restaurant wall. Some wear black hats, some wear white. There are tiny, anonymous graves scattered all over this desert. I am not saying this from inside a dream. Coyotes paw at my door all night long, trying to get in.
 
Out here, drones hover behind the brilliant sun, practicing for the second coming. There are lights that move across the night sky, soaking up the darkness between the stars. No one knows what those lights are, what they might mean. I have seen the men who search the sand with metal detectors, getting down on all fours, desperate to find pieces of the one, true secret; the hidden center that will destroy all lies. I am not saying this from inside a dream. I can see the vulture’s shadow – a sudden cross – briefly animate the stone in my hand.
 
From the radio: “They dropped food on the good guys and bombs on the bad guys!” A child’s vision. This is the season of the enemy’s tongue pressed into a scrap book for safe keeping. Good guys, bad guys. This is the season of a lynx fur stole resting on a glass box containing a stuffed lynx. Good guys, bad guys. This is the season of fingers found inside envelopes on the side of the road. I am not saying this from inside a dream. I've lit my car on fire as a beacon.  
​
INSIDE THE CAVE
​I woke in the middle of the night, unable to breathe, heard someone whisper a ten-thousand-year old spell in the dark. I am telling you this from inside a dream.
 
I dressed, went down to the switch tracks behind the commuter station at the end of the street, waited for the Amtrak and Union Pacific lines to pass each other in the fog. I stepped between the two rail lines.
 
When the first train passed - Amtrak - the noise was extravagant, absorbing my ears eyes, body, mind. When the second train passed - Union Pacific - and I was sandwiched between the screaming walls of steel I was so terrified I closed my eyes. If I had moved forward an inch, or back an inch, I knew I was dead, scattered into the dark. Remember, I am saying this from inside a dream.
 
When I summoned the courage to open my eyes, I saw immense shadows moving across the steel wall shooting by: Baal, Lamia, Tlaloc, Abyzou, all the vicious child-eaters of the night world, copulating and blending with all of us, a panoply of death and transformation, producing something new.
 
And I realized I was the torch-bearer, the first inside a new kind of cave. Like the boys who’d stumbled into Lascaux, suddenly witness to dim shapes that had been stalking them for forty thousand years. I am saying this, over and over, from inside a beautiful dream of the future.
 
And I carefully raised my shaking hands in praise. I raised my hands in praise. 

DOLLARS
​This is what I saw:
 
An old woman rested on a mattress of dollars, watched wind and light sneak through a crack in the shack boards above her feet. She got up, crossed to a pile of dollars in the corner of the dark room. Chickens out in the yard clucked, scratched. She pulled a few bills from the pile, dipped them in a bowl of rust-colored water, pasted them across the crack of light in the wall. The wind pushed against the wet bills as they slowly dried.
 
I am telling you this from inside a dream.
 
Outside, she looked east. The sun was rising above the edge of a flat plain. She opened the wire mesh gate of the chicken coop, knelt in the dust, pulled some dollars from her pocket, tore them into tiny pieces. The chickens gathered around her. She told them the story the way her mother had told her.
 
I am not telling you this from inside a dream.  
 
“Dollars bred dollars,” she said, “until there were too many. They clogged every room, every closet, every bed. No one could breathe. People clawed through the dollars, toward their windows. And the windows burst with dollars.” The chickens pecked at the bits of paper scattering in the wind. “People in the streets pushed and shoved each other,” she said, “shouting for joy, clutching at the rain of dollars, stuffing bills into their pockets, growing heavy with the laughter of so many dollars.”
 
I am telling you this from inside a dream.
 
“Dollars flooded the fields,” she said, “washed down into the ditches. Mama and her family ran outside, dancing. And the dollars descended, whirling over everything just as it was promised...”
 
The old woman finished dropping the pieces of paper and struggled to her feet. “And that’s how the world was made,” she whispered. Everything loose in the yard flapped softly.
 
I am not telling you this from inside a dream.
​
Christien Gholson is the author of two books of poetry: On the Side of the Crow (Hanging Loose Press) and All the Beautiful Dead (Bitter Oleander Press; winner of the Bitter Oleander Poetry Award and finalist for the NM book award); along with a novel, A Fish Trapped Inside the Wind (Parthian Books). A long eco-poem, Tidal Flats, was published as Issue 63 of Mudlark. He was once a fish falling from the sky. He is now a black feather skipping across the desert floor. He lives in New Mexico. He can be found at: http://christiengholson.blogspot.com/.

Back to AZURE (Volume 3, Issue 3)
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  • ABOUT
    • Our Literary Aesthetic
    • Staff >
      • Writings by Sakina B. Fakhri
    • Contact Us
    • SUBSCRIBE
  • CONTESTS
  • AZURE: A Journal of Literary Thought
    • AZURE Volume 8 >
      • PRACTICAL MEDICAL ADVICE FOR FEMALE SUBJECTS OF THE CAPE COLONY by Karen Jennings
      • PLAN B and others by M.B. McLatchey
      • IDIOSYNCRATIC ICONS: A MANIFESTO by Richard Collins
      • THE DARDANELLES (HERO AND LEANDER AT 60) by Greg Sendi
      • AN APPRECIATION OF THE SCHOLAR, ADALBERT by Vincent Mannings
      • ONE PARTING, YIELDING LINE by M. Ann Reed
      • THE RIVER FISHER'S DAUGHTER by Kirk Marshall
      • BEYOND THE GREAT HORIZON WALL by Kenny Kuhn
      • BLOOM by Michael Gessner
      • SOMETHING, I KNOW NOT WHAT by Ray Corvi
      • OF BUTLERS AND SPIES by Austin Barnes
      • WHAT THE FIRST GOD SPOKE I THINK WAS SUN by Richard Hague
      • SEELENKNARREN by Lorenz Poeschl
    • AZURE Volume 7, Issue 3 >
      • DECEMBER 25, 2022 by Aletha Irby
      • A SUMMARY OF 'A BRIEF HISTORY OF NASOCARPIA' by Peter Arscott
      • CARRYING CAPACITY by Charles Byrne
      • THE MUNE MONOLOGUES by Thomas Townsley
    • AZURE Volume 7, Issue 2 >
      • VARIATION ON A THEME & POSE POEM by Norman Minnick
      • THE MAP OF YOUR HANDS UNFOLDS A DOVE by Vikki C.
      • HISTORIES OF THE BEARD by Richard Hague
      • ILLUSTRATED COMMENTS ON THE APOPHATAPATAPHYSICAL METRICS OF COSMIC HUMOR by edo strannikov
    • AZURE Volume 7, Issue 1 >
      • ORANGES by John Moody
      • THE LACONIA by Wendy Webb
      • BREATH OF THE TEXT by Jeremiah Cassar Scalia
    • AZURE Volume 6, Issue 4 >
      • TO THOSE FOUND DEAD IN CHIMNEYS by R.W. Plym
      • WHAT TO EXPECT OF LIFE by Steven G. Kellman
      • IF IT WERE DRAWN by Jessica Reed
      • BLOOD IN THE ORCHIDS by Amanda Kotch
      • CORNELIUS RADHOPPER by Peter Arscott
    • AZURE Volume 6, Issue 3 >
      • ANIMAL INHERITANCE by akhir ali
      • THAT DUDE DERRIDA by Daniel Klawitter
      • FLAT-EARTH FRED by Phil Gallos
      • THE MYSTERY OF THE MISSING SEMICOLON by Orana Loren
      • MY BALDERDASHERY by Eric Paul Shaffer
    • AZURE Volume 6, Issue 2 >
      • MIRROR by Joshua Kepfer
      • CUE FALLING PIANO by D.C. Weaver
      • ANTON AND THE ECHO by Cristina Otero
      • THAT WHICH WE TRULY DON'T KNOW by JOACHIM GLAGE
      • CONGRATULATIONS by Alan Sincic
    • AZURE Volume 6, Issue 1 >
      • NEVER, NEVER LAND, MY SHIP by Mark Pearce
      • THE SMILE OF MONA LISA by Fatima Ijaz
      • OUROBOROS by Esme Sammons
      • THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA by Margaret D. Stetz
      • SNICKER-SNACK by Bruce Meyer
    • AZURE Volume 5, Issue 4 >
      • THE OWLET AND THE TURTLE by Greg Sendi
      • BRACTS and other poems by Nathaniel Calhoun
      • ANSWERS TO NON-EXISTENT QUESTIONS and other poems by Kevin Griffith
      • NEVERENDING KNOT by Jodie Dalgleish
      • LEARNING TO WALK by Jodie Dalgleish
      • OVERSOUL by P.S. Lutz
    • AZURE Volume 5, Issue 3 >
      • MAP OF MEMORY by Jesse Schotter
      • BISMILLAH by Abby Minor
      • MICROMORTS by Veronica Tang
      • LOVE LETTER TO LANGUAGE: AN ABECEDARIAN by Saramanda Swigart
      • IF YOU WERE ALL WATER by M. Ann Reed
    • AZURE Volume 5, Issue 2 >
      • CONTRA FORMALISME by Leland Seese
      • DRUNKEN MAN ON A BICYCLE by Dan Butterworth
      • WOLF TICKETS THROUGH THE FERAL WINTER by Kirk Marshall
      • SYLVANUS, BARD by Marc Lerner
      • THE LOOKING GLASS OF ARTHUR GORDON PYM by Frank Meola
    • AZURE Volume 5, Issue 1 >
      • INTIMATE THINGS by Laylage Courie
      • A SERIES OF PUNCTUATION by Hajar Hussaini
      • ROT AND GLORIANA by Laurel Miram
      • BLUES ON RED by Elie Doubleday
      • MY FICTION: REMEMBERING 50 YEARS OF WORK by Richard Kostelanetz
    • AZURE Volume 4, Issue 4 >
      • ENDNOTES FOR AN ALLOCUTION by Peter Freund
      • UKEMI (and other poems) by Nicole Vento
      • MEMORANDUM ON DESIRE by Laylage Courie
      • THE HOLYWOOD DEUTERONOMY by Jim Shankman
      • AT THE MAD HATTER-MARCH HARE ART GALLERY (and other poems) by M. Ann Reed
    • AZURE Volume 4, Issue 3 >
      • THE MACHINE, STOLEN FIRE, and PERFORMANCE by Vivek Narayan
      • FIRST FRUITS by Stephen Massimilla
      • ONCE UPON A TOMORROW-TIME by Christopher Routheut
      • YIELD LIGHT OF WAY by Ken Goodman
      • SEVEN TALES by Sara Streett
    • AZURE Volume 4, Issue 2 >
      • THE PUNCH-CARD CIPHERS by DF Short
      • SHE WAS THE FIRST TO GIVE A TOAST by Kelli Russell Agodon
      • HABLU L-WARIDI by Jesse Hilson
      • THE KEY TO DREAMS by Sean S. Bentley
      • SOFA, SO GOOD, SORT OF by Remy Ngamije
    • AZURE Volume 4, Issue 1 >
      • STAMPING THE DEAD by Habib Mohana
      • LEGS by A. Joachim Glage
      • I THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX by Heikki Huotari
      • LUŽÁNKY by V.B. Borjen
    • ARCHIVES: VOLUME 3 >
      • AZURE Volume 3, Issue 4 >
        • TALES UNSUITABLE FOR CHILDREN by Devon Ortega
        • WAKE UP by JayJay Conrad
        • AMONG THE MEN IS APRIL by Logo Wei
        • SWEET by Melinda Giordano
        • BLACK ROSES by Osamase Ekhator
        • MEET ME TONIGHT ON METAPHOR STREET by Vivek Narayan
      • AZURE Volume 3, Issue 3 >
        • MENAGE A TROIS, WITH HORSE by Don Dussault
        • THE BLACK by Ben Colandrea
        • BLUE SKY LANGUAGE by Christien Gholson
        • UN DETECTIVE VIEJO by Franco Strong
      • AZURE Volume 3, Issue 2 >
        • THE CLEANSING by Linda Dennard
        • SHUFFLE by Debbie Fox
        • DID YOU FALL OR RISE FROM THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWING? by M. Ann Reed
        • THE PHILOSOPHER AND THE PORNQUEEN by Omar Sabbagh
        • KIGALI MEMORIAL by Carlos Andres Gomez
        • PANTOUM OF THE MEAT by Ouita Rogers
      • AZURE Volume 3, Issue 1 >
        • HOW TO WRITE A BIOGRAPHY by Joanne B. Mulcahy
        • PROTOCOL NINE-NINE-NINE-NINE by Kenneth Hanes
        • LESS' MORE by TWIXT
        • POINTLESS MR. PROBST by Beatriz Seelaender
    • ARCHIVES: VOLUME 2 >
      • AZURE Volume 2, Issue 4 >
        • SYLVAN PASSAGES by Dan Wood
        • SISTER ALONE by Janet M Powers
        • CENTURY 2.1 by Alan Flurry
        • CLAIMED BY THE SEA by Sam Reese
      • AZURE Volume 2, Issue 3 >
        • CROSSHATCHING by M.K. Rainey
        • LULLABY by Barbara Daddino
        • HOUSEMOUTH (and other poems) by Anhvu Buchanan and Brent Piller
        • THE RESIDUE IN PUBLIC TEA AND COFFEE CUPS by V.B. Borjen
        • SYZYGY (and other poems) by Malorie Seeley-Sherwood
      • AZURE Volume 2, Issue 2 >
        • DRAGONFLIES: A DISCOURSE ON ANXIETY by Lara Lillibridge
        • AND RICHARD BURBAGE ALSO HAD A SISTER by Freya Shipley
        • THE WATCHERS by M.K. Rainey
        • JAZZ INTERACTION WITH SYMBOLS by Sarah T.
        • SPIDER (and other poems) by Natalie Crick
      • AZURE Volume 2, Issue 1 >
        • ECHOES by Daniel Freeman
        • MAPS by Susan Brennan
        • EDGAR'S FATHER'S MAGIC WORDS by JWM Morgan
        • LOCKJAW: IN TWO ACTS by James Blevins
        • WHAT THE LIVING DO by Susan Wadds
    • Archives: Volume 1 >
      • AZURE Volume 1, Issue 10 >
        • SUSURROS DE RECURRENCIA by Franco Strong
        • THE OLD MAN by Sarah T.
        • PERMUTATIONS by Laura Cesarco Eglin
        • WORLD PEACE 3 by Gustavo Alberto Garcia Vaca
      • AZURE Volume 1, Issue 9 >
        • LITTLE GHOST by Danny Judge
        • THE LAST ALLUSIONIST by Sakina B. Fakhri
        • CHURCH by Diana McClure
      • AZURE Volume 1, Issue 8 >
        • DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS by Nancy Flynn
        • WHAT I COULDN'T SAY by Erika Ranee & Diana McClure
      • AZURE Volume 1, Issue 7 >
        • BRASS TYRANT AND THE AMERICAN THIRST by Kirk Marshall
        • LADY KILLER by Monika Viola
        • THE RIBBONS by Ferguson Williams
      • AZURE Volume 1, Issue 6 >
        • AURELIA: A BALLET IN PROSE (ACT 2 - Part 1) by Sakina B. Fakhri
        • NEW AGE UNCAGED by Frank Light
        • IMMIGRATION/INTEGRATION by Jaret Vadera & Diana McClure
      • AZURE Volume 1, Issue 5 >
        • THE TRIALS OF TOBIT by Joseph Lisowski
        • LIKE MANY GIANT FOOTPRINTS (and other poems) by William Doreski
        • AURELIA: A BALLET IN PROSE (ACT I) by Sakina B. Fakhri
      • AZURE Volume 1, Issue 4 >
        • WARDENCLIFF by Barbara Daddino
        • BETTER LIVING THROUGH CHEMISTRY by Reg Darling
        • AURELIA: A BALLET IN PROSE (LIBRETTO) by Sakina B. Fakhri
      • AZURE Volume 1, Issue 3 >
        • LAWTON, OKLAHOMA by Mark Lawley
        • TWEETY BIRD'S GRACE by Diana McClure
        • CONTAGION AND THE DINNER GUEST by Sakina B. Fakhri
        • ON POETRY AND PROSE by Sakina B. Fakhri
      • AZURE Volume 1, Issue 2 >
        • TWO MICE IN A BLACK BOX & THE DECONSTRUCTION OF LANGUAGE by Sakina B. Fakhri
      • AZURE Volume 1, Issue 1 >
        • CHARACTER SKETCHES by Diana McClure
        • SEASONS ON A GRAVESTONE by Sakina B. Fakhri
        • COCKTAIL PARTY by Diana McClure
        • DESUETUDE by Sakina B. Fakhri
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