Map Literary: A Journal of Contemporary Writing and Art
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    • On Experimental Fiction
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    • Craig Foltz, "Without Stigma"
  • Nonfiction
    • Martha Wiseman, "Loose Ends"
    • Jan Jolly, "Through My Father's Glasses"
    • Kristina Moriconi, "Still Looking"
    • Wm. Anthony Connolly, "IGY"
    • Cal Freeman, "Loosestrife"
    • W.F. Lantry, "The Strange Beauty of the Unfamiliar"
    • Michael Roloff, "Accretion"
    • Andrew Sunshine, "John Hancock's John Hancock"
    • Diane Payne, "3 micro memoirs"
    • Luc Sante, "Flesh and Bone"
    • Isobel O'Hare, "Failure: A Love Letter"
    • Melissa Wiley, "Barbed Wire Fence"
    • Ashley Wilkinson, "fractional distillation"
  • Art
Picture
Christopher Leibow

Excerpts from Riparia Suite

*

are in the amber color          of sap —                 

oozing from our
carved initials,         

laying on top
                     of each other. 

a talisman –                    

that expands
each year
marked; the white sycamore
at the bend of the river.                               

The River.







*

There are no 
roads to here. 
how did we… 

how did I end 
up on this side 
of the river? 

Are we two
migrating 
birds - did we 

get lost 
by a shift 

of constellations? 

Under a wet canopy 
I build a fire 

         under the skin. 







*

While you
sleep

I send you
            small birds

to weave
          words

into your
            hair

but the river
holds me

back -

    Instead she
weaves herself.

Did you wonder
    why on waking

     the damp
                     pillowcase?







*

She weaves red

thread into river-water

                      the dusk around her rests on rivulets,

alights on gold leaf spin

                      casts small shadows across bare skin

She now sings

                      Rocks a lullaby — rocks the river

On the shore a paper boat sitting on a bedside table

the bed and the child -
his eyes getting heavy

                             and heavier.







*

She is always
arriving

always
leaving

I am still
here

on the shore
throwing stones

over the river’s
undulating

body
This morning

did you
hear their

damp dead
thump

among
the damp fallen

leaves
calling 

to you?





Picture
Christopher Leibow is a poet, a visual artist and a performer of small slights of hand. He is an MFA graduate of Antioch and has been published in numerous journals and online, including  Circa, Interim, and Barrow Street and Likewise Folio with upcoming publications in 2 Bridges and the Sugarhouse Review.  His art has appeared in Lumina, 491 Magazine and has been a featured artist online with Cha: A Journal of Asian Writing and OFZOOs. He is a two time Pushcart Award nominee and a Utah Book Award Nominee and the winner of the Writers@WorkWriters Advocate Award in 2008.currently lives in Salt Lake City, with his cat Count Orly.




published by
The Department of English
College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences
The William Paterson University of New Jersey
Copyright © 2012-2022 Map Literary
Map Literary

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  • About
    • Masthead
    • Submissions
    • Rachel Wetzsteon Chapbook Award
    • NJ High School Writing Contest
    • In Print
    • Subscribe
    • Links
    • Internship Opportunity
    • WPU MFA
  • Poetry
    • Richard Ryal
    • Sherwood Anderson
    • Mark DeCarteret
    • Dennis Hinrichsen Poetry
    • Daniel Biegelson
    • Natan Last
    • Jim Daniels Poetry
    • Michael Chang
    • D E Steward
    • Benjamin Paloff Poetry
    • David Dodd Lee
    • Isabelle Doyle
    • Kathleen Heil
    • Leonard Kress
    • Lauren Tess
    • Cesca Janece Waterfield
    • Billy Cancel Poetry
    • Scott Minar
    • Greg Glazner
    • Bruce McRae
    • Maureen Thorson
  • Fiction
    • On Experimental Fiction
    • Mark Cassidy, "How I Met My Wife"
    • Emily Trachtenberg, "Plum"
    • Hector Donovan-Gonzalez
    • Christopher Linforth, "Zia"
    • Jenessa Abrams, "You Never Wish That Upon Anyone"
    • Eros Livieratos, "On Feeling"
    • Halsted M. Bernard, "Your Hands"
    • Justin Meckes, "The Gash"
    • Reb Livingston, from "Bombyonder"
    • Craig Foltz, "Without Stigma"
  • Nonfiction
    • Martha Wiseman, "Loose Ends"
    • Jan Jolly, "Through My Father's Glasses"
    • Kristina Moriconi, "Still Looking"
    • Wm. Anthony Connolly, "IGY"
    • Cal Freeman, "Loosestrife"
    • W.F. Lantry, "The Strange Beauty of the Unfamiliar"
    • Michael Roloff, "Accretion"
    • Andrew Sunshine, "John Hancock's John Hancock"
    • Diane Payne, "3 micro memoirs"
    • Luc Sante, "Flesh and Bone"
    • Isobel O'Hare, "Failure: A Love Letter"
    • Melissa Wiley, "Barbed Wire Fence"
    • Ashley Wilkinson, "fractional distillation"
  • Art