"Clouds" by Amanda Span

My father could
burn holes in the clouds
with the power of his mind:

Watch, he says,
looking at the stretch
of sky above us, 
a sheet on the sand
beneath our backs.

Right there. He points
to the thickest part 
of the fluffiest cloud.

I check his eyes to see if 
they are true.

You’ll see, he says,  
focusing his gaze;

and I watch while 
the minutes wash away in the waves,
and the minutes float to the sky

as we breathe eternity’s salt-swept time,
particles dissipate, and the cloud changes
where he said it would.

You can do this too, he says.

***

Amanda Span lives in Pittsburgh and knows what it is like to kayak in the rain. Her poetry explores nature and the vagaries of life, rain or shine. She received fifth honorable mention in the National Federation of State Poetry Societies 2019 Contest for the Barbara Stevens Memorial Award and third place in the Pennwriters Annual Contest in 2018 and 2019. She has a Master of Arts in Publishing and Writing from Emerson College.

"Renew" is a silver gelatin print by Julia Forrest, a Brooklyn based artist. She works strictly in film and prints in a darkroom she built in her apartment. Her own art has always been her top priority in life and in this digital world, she will continue to work with old processing. Julia is currently working as a teaching artist at the Brooklyn Museum, Medgar Evers College, USDAN Art Center, and Lehigh University. As an instructor, she thinks it is important to understand that a person can constantly stretch and push the boundaries of their ideas with whatever medium of art s/he chooses. Her goal is for her audience to not only enjoy learning about photography, but to see the world in an entirely new way and continue to develop a future interest in the arts.