Betsy Mars

April 30, 2019

“Living in Space After a Break-Up” by Jaime MeraPosted by

Ekphrastic Challenge, March 2019: Editor’s Choice

 

Floating by Betsy Mars

Image: “Floating” by Betsy Mars. “Living in Space After a Break-Up” was written by Jaime Mera for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, March 2019, and selected as the Editor’s Choice.

[download: PDF / JPG]

__________

Jaime Mera

LIVING IN SPACE AFTER A BREAK-UP

She decided to go to space
like deciding to buy Seventh
Generation dish soap at Target.
No phone calls or texts. No
checking her ex’s Facebook
page for his updated status.
She imagined time in space
would pass like an innertube
floating down the river. At first,
the darkness felt like a demon
swallowed and plunged her
into the cavern of its belly.
Later, the darkness swaddled
her like a spider’s silk spun
around its egg sac. She stopped
aching for his touch and that warm
rush that flushed through her
as he kissed her inner thigh.
She discovered that time
collapses and merges together
like a river.

—from Ekphrastic Challenge
March 2019, Editor’s Choice

__________

Comment from the editor, Timothy Green: “As Betsy Mars mentioned last week, there was an especially wide range of interesting poems submitted for the challenge in March—and a near-record 395 submissions total. Jaime Mera grabbed me right away with the surprising humor in the first three lines before plunging into incredibly nuanced metaphor of at the heart of the poem. I love how the breakup and life in space, too, merge like that river, so that I almost forget which is a metaphor for which.”

Rattle Logo

April 25, 2019

“Trompe L’oeil” by Juliet LathamPosted by

Ekphrastic Challenge, March 2019: Artist’s Choice

 

Floating by Betsy Mars

Image: “Floating” by Betsy Mars. “Trompe L’oeil” was written by Juliet Latham for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, March 2019, and selected as the Artist’s Choice.

[download: PDF / JPG]

__________

Juliet Latham

TROMPE L’OEIL

What if the retina
jolted by a light
sent its obligatory signal

to the brain and formed
a woman
and that woman is me

a floater
which my doctor tells me
can be very normal

just a fiber clump
in the vitreous gel
that inhabits the eye

I learned early
this trick
of suspension

how to dart away
from any gaze
held too long

hover
just until
it is unclear

if what you watch
is the world you have left
or a tunnel you might enter

the things an eye
can see from this height
my mother’s face

hiding poison
only meant
for me

the lover on Chestnut
all charm in light
bullets by dark

business trip, an elevator,
strange man’s mouth
doors sealed hard

too many floaters
and a flash of light
is an emergency

my doctor says
I’m high risk
for retinal detachment

quizzes me on symptoms
to see if I’m listening
I tell her acute episodes

of imaginative replacement
floating, looking out
when I should be looking in

the presence of any magic
holding up the body
in lieu of trust

perhaps she’s warning me
about blindness because
she doesn’t know

I’m floating here
beyond her pencil of light
asking if this eye

is all there is to see.

—from Ekphrastic Challenge
March 2019, Artist’s Choice

__________

Comment from the artist, Betsy Mars: “This was a unique opportunity to be on the other side of the selection process, and I am hereby swearing to never again second-guess anyone’s choice. The range of subject matter, style, and length was breathtaking. A gutsy, succinct very short poem vs. a heartfelt and well-written three-pager. Some touched on the futuristic aspects of the image, some took the vibe and went with it in a more indirect manner. It may have been the most arduous work I have ever done outside of childbirth. I admired all, but in the end chose this because I love the extended metaphor and the way that the poet blurred the line between the literal and the symbolic. The sense of alienation and detachment was so palpable in the writing. I have felt that kind of out-of-body experience when looking at my own life, and I think the poem aligns so well with the emotions conjured by the image. Plus, I am mildly at risk for retinal detachment.”

Rattle Logo