Amarillo Bay 
 Volume 11 Number 2 

Amarillo Bay Contents
Volume 11 Number 2

We are pleased to present the second issue of our eleventh year, published on Monday, 18 May 2009. We hope you enjoy browsing through our extensive collection of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry! (See the Works List to discover the over 400 works in our collection, including the ability to search through the issues.)


Fiction

Amid the Alien Corn
   by Mark Bastable
Mark Bastable

Mark Bastable has published two novels in the UK (Icebox and Mischief — Hodder, 1999 and 2001 respectively) He was a columnist for GQ (two years) and Esquire (three years). He appeared on the literary panel at the Backspace Writers' Conference in New York in 2006 and 2007. He is currently working on a third novel and may be contacted at: mbastable@hotmail.com. This is his second appearance in Amarillo Bay.

As Poe later explained in The Philosophy of Composition, his explicit intention was "to create a poem that should suit at once the popular and the critical taste." —Prof. Nathan Dale, Poe: A Life Apart

"Professor Dale?"

The bespectacled, gray-haired gentleman peered up from his volume of Homer, blinking at the young woman addressing him. She looked for a moment like Helen of Troy.

Professor Dale shook off that unbidden impression and got to his feet.

"That's me, yes."

"Follow me please. Mr. Pilszki has asked me to take you to the Casablanca Suite."
continue

Confession
   by Roger Poppen
Roger Poppen

Roger Poppen took up creative writing after retiring as a professor of behavior analysis. He has published one novel, Mister Lucky, and several shorter works in online and print magazines, including Flashquake, Insolent Rudder, Long Story Short, Skyline, and Ducts. More of his work may be seen at http://mypage.siu.edu/drrock/.

"This new guy we hired, he really bugs me," Alicia said to her husband at breakfast.

Ralph looked up from his newspaper and turned down the volume of Morning Edition on the radio. "What?"

"This new guy, Tom. He's driving me nuts."

"How so?" Ralph sipped his coffee, wiped his mustache with a forefinger.

"He's so, I don't know, military. He's retired Air Force, you know. It's like he wants orders. 'What's the priority?' he says when I give him some things to do. What do I know the priority is? Just do them."
continue

Fields of Dream
   by Bob Gunn
Bob Gunn

Bob Gunn lives near Salem, Indiana, with his wife Mindy. His short stories have appeared in the Northwoods Journal, The Armchair Aesthete, Eureka Literary Magazine, Chaffin Journal and The Griffin. In addition to his writing endeavors, he owns a modest two-acre vineyard consisting primarily of French hybrid varietals and a half-acre orchard featuring cider apples.

Rain machine-gunned the side of the barn; the trees swayed violently as the storm blew in. Lightning flashed. Thunder growled. Raising his head in the building wind, Sam leaned upon the shovel. This is the way the weather should be, he thought, when you were burying a loved one. Postcard-perfect days were for baseball games and parades. Weddings, too. He sighed; the sky had been crystal blue the day he had buried his parents.

He resumed digging. For sixteen years Chancellor had been his faithful companion. But the inexorable march of time had worn her down until one day he realized she was old. Walking had become an effort; chasing rubber balls a memory. On pleasant days he would carry her to the vineyard and sit her in the shade beneath the vines; when it was hot he left her sleeping on the bed in an air-conditioned room.
continue

King
   by Paul Silverman
Paul Silverman

Paul Silverman's stories have appeared in The South Dakota Review, Tampa Review, Eureka Literary Magazine, Minnetonka Review, Worcester Review, Alimentum, Coe Review, Jabberwock Review, Eclectica, Hobart Online, Pindeldyboz, The King's English, Smokelong Quarterly, Laura Hird, The Pedestal, Adirondack Review, Dogmatika, Summerset Review, VerbSap, Word Riot, Thieves Jargon and many others. He has three Pushcart nominations, a Best of the Net nomination, and was shortlisted twice for The Million Writers Award. Find more at www.paulsilverman.com. This is his second appearance in Amarillo Bay.

On her ninety-fourth birthday, her ninth as a widow, Essie Lester was taken to her favorite Boston steakhouse, Fallon's, where she put away a twelve-ounce prime filet and mounds of garlic-mashed potatoes and creamed spinach. Eating on one side of her was her son, George, and on the other his wife, Marlene, who spent much of the dinner talking about the low-carb diet they had gone on to prepare for their anniversary odyssey to the tropics, the Big Thirtieth. They picked at their pale tilapia and exchanged eye-rolling glances, showboating for the waiter and busboy their envious pride in Essie's fabled genes. After dessert (death-by-chocolate cake for Essie and black decaf for George and Marlene), Essie spent an inordinate amount of time in the vault-like, walnut-paneled alcove which the restaurant touts as its "gallery" of vintage sports photographs, four walls crammed with old glossies of bygone local jocks, famous and obscure. Then the steakhouse valet brought around the car and George began driving them back to Essie's apartment house, a building for elders who could still take care of themselves. This meant no doctors, no nurses, just individual studio units, a dining hall, and an activities director for the bored and bingo-obsessed.
continue

Sunday Night Smackdown
   by D. E. Fredd
D. E. Fredd

D. E. Fredd lives in Townsend, Massachusetts. He has had fiction and poetry published in several journals and reviews. He received the Theodore Hoepfner Award given by the Southern Humanities Review for the best short fiction of 2005 and he was a 2006 Ontario Award Finalist. He won the 2006 Black River Chapbook Competition and received a 2007 Pushcart Special Mention Award. He has been included in the Million Writers Award of Notable Stories for 2005, 2006 and 2007. This is his second appearance in Amarillo Bay.

The Pre-match Hype:

Late Sunday afternoon and evening in downtown Lowell, Massachusetts, was the busiest time at Rudy's La Famiglia Trattoria. We did a great business on Saturday night, but it was a madhouse after 4:00 p.m. on Sunday. Rudy even brought in his octogenarian father, Paulo, to toss pizzas, which helped him and Marco stem the hungry tide. I could have used an extra hand on the grill, but the kitchen space was so small that we'd probably have ended up tripping over one another.

Most of our menu was picked up at the counter, which saved on the need for wait staff; but Rudy always added a high school kid for drink refills and to bus the tables. Brenda, as usual, worked the register. God forbid she should leave her post to do anything that might damage the manicure that often featured the red, white and green of the Italian flag. Since she was Irish, this was more to suck up to Rudy than to display a national allegiance.
continue


Creative Nonfiction

Walking on Ash Point
   by Jim Krosschell
Jim Krosschell

Jim Krosschell worked in science publishing for 30 years, starting as a 29-year-old production assistant. (He avoided getting a real job until then by grad school, Peace Corps, travel and teaching.) He has mostly retired now, writing essays and a blog http://onesmansmaine.blogspot.com , and dividing his time between Newton, MA and Owls Head, ME. His essays have appeared in Cantaraville and Sangam, and are forthcoming in Saranac Review, Amarillo Bay, and others.

November 2001

Trailers

The name sign on the trailer must have fallen off — I don't remember seeing it in the last couple of years. The mailbox on the opposite side of the road still says, faintly, "D. Heard," or perhaps "Hoard." We've never seen anyone there in seven years, although I seem to remember, when we first came walking, an old car parked most days on the grass. A little picture would come into my head, a grizzled man, old, in bib overalls, listening to local radio at his kitchen table, but it was quickly dismissed as soon as we turned the corner and saw the ocean below. Same for another trailer just up the road, this one with lovely flower beds that changed with the seasons, and lacy curtains, and my fleeting image was a widow in skirt and stockings and reading glasses and several grandchildren that visited on certain Sundays, again brutally disremembered, until the next time we walked.
continue


Poetry

Armadillo Home
   by Donal Mahoney
Donal Mahoney

Donal Mahoney has worked as an editor for The Chicago Sun-Times, Loyola University Press, McDonnell Douglas Corp. (now the Boeing Corp.) and Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

He has had poems published in or accepted by The Wisconsin Review, The Kansas Quarterly, The South Carolina Review, Orbis (England), Commonweal, The Christian Science Monitor, Revival (Ireland), The Beloit Poetry Journal, The Chicago Sunday Tribune Magazine, The Innisfree Poetry Journal, Istanbul Literary Review (Turkey), The Davidson Miscellany, Gloom Cupboard (U.K.), The Common Ground Review, Public Republic (Bulgaria) and other publications.

Rush Hour, Chicago

Early evening traffic
rather heavy.
Autos armadillo home
continue

Blinking Like Ferrets
   by Donal Mahoney
Donal Mahoney

Donal Mahoney has worked as an editor for The Chicago Sun-Times, Loyola University Press, McDonnell Douglas Corp. (now the Boeing Corp.) and Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

He has had poems published in or accepted by The Wisconsin Review, The Kansas Quarterly, The South Carolina Review, Orbis (England), Commonweal, The Christian Science Monitor, Revival (Ireland), The Beloit Poetry Journal, The Chicago Sunday Tribune Magazine, The Innisfree Poetry Journal, Istanbul Literary Review (Turkey), The Davidson Miscellany, Gloom Cupboard (U.K.), The Common Ground Review, Public Republic (Bulgaria) and other publications.

I have been too busy

the last two years to talk

to anyone in the office.
continue

Everything Is Perfect
   by William L. Alton
William L. Alton

William L. Alton has been writing now for nearly twenty-five years, recently publishing work in The Poet's Canvas, Red River Review, The Oklahoma Review, Whalelane and KOTA Press. Currently, he lives in Forest Grove, Oregon, with his wife and three sons.

The sky is smooth as blue marble.
White sand and small rocks
dig into our knees, our backs and hips.
continue

Harvest Economy
   by Taylor Graham
Taylor Graham

Taylor Graham is a volunteer search-and-rescue dog handler in the Sierra Nevada. His poems have appeared in International Poetry Review, The Iowa Review, The New York Quarterly, Poetry International, Southern Humanities Review, and elsewhere, and he's included in the anthology California Poetry: From the Gold Rush to the Present (Santa Clara University, 2004). His book "The Downstairs Dance Floor" (Texas Review Press, 2006) was awarded the Robert Phillips Poetry Chapbook Prize.

Yankee hardpan, stone
two feet deep in places, and
where's the soft spot
in between, the giving soil
continue

Idaho, Moments After Sunset
   by John Sibley Williams
John Sibley Williams

Having received an MA in Writing, John has recently returned to the Boston area, where he gives weekly public readings, and he is compiling manuscripts composed from the last two years of traveling and living abroad. Some of his over thirty previous or upcoming publications include: The Evansville Review, Flint Hills Review, Cadillac Cicatrix, Juked, The Journal, Barnwood International Poetry, Phantasmagoria, The Alembic, Southern Ocean Review, Poetic Diversity, Language and Culture, Raving Dove, Ghoti, and Red Hawk Review.

Lamps unsure if they've longer to wait
before darkness completes itself
and I unsure if their volleys
of flickering and hesitation
is the sought sign — when to know
if I'm ready to leave?
continue

Stillborn Calf
   by John Sibley Williams
John Sibley Williams

Having received an MA in Writing, John has recently returned to the Boston area, where he gives weekly public readings, and he is compiling manuscripts composed from the last two years of traveling and living abroad. Some of his over thirty previous or upcoming publications include: The Evansville Review, Flint Hills Review, Cadillac Cicatrix, Juked, The Journal, Barnwood International Poetry, Phantasmagoria, The Alembic, Southern Ocean Review, Poetic Diversity, Language and Culture, Raving Dove, Ghoti, and Red Hawk Review.

There was a moment
human hands taught it fiery touch.
A moment of light.
continue


Works List

Google™ Search

You can use Google to find works that appeared in Amarillo Bay. (Note that the search results may not include authors and works in the current issue.) You also can use Google to search the World Wide Web.

Google
Search Amarillo Bay Search the Web

Works by Issue

2009 Volume 11 Number 2, 18 May 2009 — Current Issue
Volume 11 Number 1, 2 February 2009
2008 Volume 10 Number 4, 3 November 2008
Volume 10 Number 4, 18 August 2008
Volume 10 Number 2, 19 May 2008
Volume 10 Number 1, 11 February 2008
2007 Volume 9 Number 4, 12 November 2007
Volume 9 Number 3, 6 August 2007
Volume 9 Number 2, 7 May 2007
Volume 9 Number 1, 5 February 2007
2006 Volume 8 Number 4, 6 November 2006
Volume 8 Number 3, 7 August 2006
Volume 8 Number 2, 8 May 2006
Volume 8 Number 1, 6 February 2006
2005 Volume 7 Number 4, 7 November 2005
Volume 7 Number 3, 8 August 2005
Volume 7 Number 2, 2 May 2005
Volume 7 Number 1, 7 February 2005
2004 Volume 6 Number 4, 1 October 2004
Volume 6 Number 3, 2 August 2004
Volume 6 Number 2, 3 May 2004
Volume 6 Number 1, 2 February 2004
2003 Volume 5 Number 4, 3 November 2003
Volume 5 Number 3, 4 August 2003
Volume 5 Number 2, 5 April 2003
Volume 5 Number 1, 3 February 2003
2002 Volume 4 Number 4, 4 November 2002
Volume 4 Number 3, 5 August, 2002
Volume 4 Number 2, 6 May 2002
Volume 4 Number 1, 4 February 2002
2001 Volume 3 Number 4, 5 November 2001
Volume 3 Number 3, 6 August 2001
Volume 3 Number 2, 7 May 2001
Volume 3 Number 1, 5 February 2001
2000 Volume 2 Number 4, 6 November 2000
Volume 2 Number 3, 7 August 2000
Volume 2 Number 2, 1 May 2000
Volume 2 Number 1, 7 February 2000
1999 Volume 1 Number 3, 1 November 1999
Volume 1 Number 2, 2 August 1999
Volume 1 Number 1, 3 May 1999