26
2015
NORTH CAROLINA L I T E R A R Y RE V I E W
number 24
FINALIST, 2014 JAMES APPLEWHITE POETRY PRIZE BY SUSAN LEFLER
Burning Bush summer burned toward autumn the house jammed with what grown children and aging parents left behind in and under everything until desperate for space we folded red paper and made red envelopes seven each as pleas for feng shui intervention the master came bearing crystal spheres bamboo flutes mirrors marked with mercury mirrors soaked in sun and moon we needed flow we needed Tibetan prayers tenuous on the tongue by the end our house felt open new wind water energy flow like river basins lightning bolts tree limbs all but my husband’s arteries the two main branches nearly dammed I sat with our four children woven like a nest around me while the surgeons stopped their father’s heart to snip and stitch new channels for the blood we came home fragile drained to the bowl of backyard trees stained red hearts-a-bustin’ burning bush leaves berries branches flame all flame and not consumed
It’s Still a Brilliant World III (acrylic on canvas, 36x24) by Eduardo Lapetina
SUSAN LEFLER’s poems have appeared in Icarus International, Appalachian Heritage, Pinesong, Bay Leaves, Asheville Poetry Review, Wind, Passager, Main Street Rag, Pembroke Review, Pisgah Review, as well as Kakalak (an anthology of North and South Carolina poets, now published by Main Street Rag) and the anthologies ...and love... and What Matters, published by Jacar Press. She is the author of the photographic history books Brevard (Arcadia Publishing, 2004) and Brevard, Then & Now (Arcadia Publishing, 2012). She was formerly managing editor of Smoky Mountain Living. Her first collection of poems Rendering the Bones (Wind Publications, 2011) won honorable mention in the 2012 Oscar Arnold Young Contest for the Book sponsored by the Poetry Council of North Carolina. Her poem “The Gravedigger’s Wife Ponders” won the North Carolina Poet Laureate Award in 2013 and was published in Pinesong. Her poem “Inspector 17” received Honorable Mention in the 2014 Applewhite competition and will be published in the print issue of NCLR 2015. Hear the poet read that poem at the 2014 North Carolina Writers Conference.
Chapel Hill resident EDUARDO LAPETINA is a native of Argentina. He moved to North Carolina in 1976 to do cardiovascular research in thrombosis and arteriosclerosis for Burroughs Wellcome. Upon his retirement in 2002, on a whim, he took a class with artist Jane Filer at Carrboro ArtsCenter, discovered a new passion, and has been painting ever since. In recent years, he has been part of more than fifty solo and group exhibitions, attended national and international art colonies, and completed a residency at the Vermont Studio Center. His paintings have received several awards and are in various corporate and private collections throughout the US, Europe, Israel, and Australia. See more of his work on his website and in NCLR Online 2014.