#003

by Wendy Creekmore, Kristin Koester, Nicci Mechler, and Hilda Weaver

To kneel at rock walls and hollowed trunks,
this is what I dream—
but what becomes my knees swollen, swallowed
with art of trees.  Here

to find what lies
behind the branches of our hearts.
It is cold outside—
so chilly in this house that the tea towels
have holes gnawed up for a mouse nest.

The pine floor creaks with knowing.
I hear the ting-ting of snow
on the thin tin roof. My thoughts wander
to the Labyrinth inside me,
and it's not concentric yet.

---

Wendy Creekmore is a recent graduate of the MA in Integrative Studies program, and is completing an MA in English, both at Northern Kentucky University. She lives in rural Northern Kentucky, just south of Cincinnati, Ohio, with her husband, Virgil, and two kitties. Her poetry is forthcoming in Sugared Water and Journal of Kentucky Studies.

Kristin Koester recently received her MA in English from Northern Kentucky University. She is bread buttered by the moon and was raised by plants. She spends her time battling forest fires in her brain, writing poetry, and making art out of life. She is proud to be Kentucky born and finds refuge in a nook where the Ohio and Licking Rivers meet, opposite of Cincinnati.

Nicci Mechler (MA English & BFA Studio Art) splits her time between writing poetry & speculative fiction, revising things, and drawing girls with inky tattoos. She's hard pressed to go anywhere without a sense of wonder and a pair of red shoes. Nicci's work appears in journals like The Pinch, VAYAVYA, Rose Red Review and is forthcoming in Roanoke Review, Pea River Journal, Kestrel, and Arroyo Literary Review.

Hilda Weaver is a senior citizen making her "last stand" in the world of academia as a Northern Kentucky University Donovan Scholar. She is a retired psychotherapist, the mother of three, grandmother of four and great grandmother of six. "Maybe," she says, "I'll live long enough to see my new gr/gr baby (three months old) learn to drive." Her poetry is forthcoming in Sugared Water and 94 Creations Journal.