Not Trump SeriesrbdL. Shapley Bassen, nottrump, poetry

L. Shapley Bassen: #NotTrump Series

Not Trump SeriesrbdL. Shapley Bassen, nottrump, poetry
L. Shapley Bassen: #NotTrump Series

MIDDLE-EAR EVOLUTION

"So reptiles eat with the bones we hear with."

Reptiles Eat With the Bones Humans Hear With, Fossil Proves - John Noble Wilford, Published: April 18, 2011

Chew Schubert’s E-flat Trio

for piano, violin, and cello,

using three bones in your ears

evolved from reptilian jaws.

Swallow the sound and savor

the flavor on your tongue, of Time.

Malleus, incus,

ectotympanic;

how rhythmic the words are as well.

See a snake unhinging its jaw,

the horror of swallowing prey whole.

To what greater harmony may

 anatomy one day evolve?

L. Shapley Bassen's "Portrait of a Giant Squid" was the First Place winner in the 2015 Austin Chronicle Short Story Contest. She is the author of Summer of the Long Knives (Typhoon Media) and Lives of Crime & Other Stories (Texture Press). Her second collection, Showfolk & Stories (Inkception Books) will appear in Dec., 2016. She was a finalist for the 2011 Flannery O’Connor Award, was a 1st reader for Electric Literature, won the 2009 APP Drama Prize and a Mary Roberts Rinehart Fellowship, and is poetry/fiction reviewer for Brooklyner, The Rumpus, and others. Visit her online at http://www.lsbassen.com/ 

Not Trump SeriesrbdSarah Lilius, nottrump, poetry

Sarah Lilius: #NotTrump Series

Sarah Lilius lives in Arlington, VA with her husband and two sons. Some places her work can be found are The Denver Quarterly, Court Green, Hermeneutic Chaos, Tinderbox, Red Paint Hill, and Stirring. She is the author of What Becomes Within (ELJ Editions, 2014) and The Heart Factory (Black Cat Moon Press, 2016). She has a forthcoming chapbook from Dancing Girl Press. Her website is sarahlilius.com.

Not Trump SeriesrbdSarah Lilius, nottrump, poetry
Sarah Lilius: #NotTrump Series
Not Trump Seriesrbdkris hall, nottrump, poetry

Kris Hall: #NotTrump Series

Kris Hall is an event coordinator for Ogopogo and Da'daedal. Author of the chapbooks Dillinger on the Beach (Horse Less Press) and Notes for Xenos Vesparum (Shotgun Wedding). His work has appeared in Juked, DREGINALD, Reality Beach, SHARKPACK Annual, and Seattle Review of Books. He currently lives with his wife and two cats.

Not Trump Seriesrbdkris hall, nottrump, poetry
Kris Hall: #NotTrump Series
Not Trump SeriesrbdMonica Rowley, nottrump, poetry

Monica Rowley: #NotTrump Series

Monica Rowley teaches amazing high school students in Brooklyn, noting that they are far better than she is at trigonometry and pentameter. She loves sharks and tigers, Gilgamesh, and Ramprasad Sen's poetry to the Goddess Kali. She is the oldest of seven, and her siblings are her best friends. She considers this turn of sibling luck the best fortune she could have.  Monica has been the recipient of several grants and awards, including one from the National Endowment for the Humanities. If you would like to read more of her poems, check them out on Brooklyn Poets’ The Bridge or in the upcoming issue of the Irish literary journal, The Ogham Stone.

Not Trump SeriesrbdMonica Rowley, nottrump, poetry
Monica Rowley: #NotTrump Series
Not Trump SeriesrbdAmy Strauss Friedman, nottrump, poetry

Amy Strauss Friedman: #NotTrump Series

Amy Strauss Friedman is the author of the chapbook Gathered Bones are Known to Wander (Red Bird Chapbooks, 2016). Her poems have appeared in The Rumpus, Pittsburgh Poetry Review, Escape Into Life, FLAPPERHOUSE, Red Paint Hill, decomP magazinE, and elsewhere. Amy earned her MA in Comparative Literature from Northwestern University. She was born and raised in Chicago where she taught English at Harper College and at Northwestern’s Center for Talent Development. She recently moved to Denver, Colorado where she teaches poetry to elementary school students. Her work can be found at amystraussfriedman.com.

Not Trump SeriesrbdAmy Strauss Friedman, nottrump, poetry
Amy Strauss Friedman: #NotTrump Series