"Post Card to a White Dwarf" by Jose del Valle

The sun sparkles on the bay.

Race day.

Sailboats the color of ecological catastrophe

jostle at the start. A vendor sells a local clam & children shout

much louder than they’re allowed at home.

Here we have clouds to erase almost everything.

To remember we snap a picture.

We have the look & style of a people

whose gods arrived here young -- unable yet even to speak -- whom we fed

by hypodermic needle.

Enormous buildings house them now. They rain down blessings

under lock & key. Our dogs — incidentally —

have learned things even you might find hard to believe.

The sun sparkles on the bay.

José del Valle is a Cuban-born writer living in Rhode Island. Poems and stories have appeared or will appear in Frontier Poetry, Carve Magazine, The Saranac Review, The Acentos Review, Tipton Poetry Journal, The Mainichi, Contemporary Haibun Online, The Heron's Nest, the late Jane Reichhold's Lynx, and other small haiku pubs.

"Pixeldrifted Summer Field near Interlaken, N.Y." Photograph by Pearse Anderson. He is a photographer and writer living in Oberlin, OH. His photos have or will appear in The Tishman Review, Bad Pony Magazine, and Juke Joint Magazine, while his writing can be found in Weird Fiction Review, Jellyfish Review, and OCCULUM. He is from Central New York and took many of his favorite photographs (such as this one) from his adventures around the region. More of his work can be found on his website or on his Instagram account.