Flashbacks: Echoes of Past Issues
N C L R ONLINE
91
FINALIST, 2019 JAMES APPLEWHITE POETRY PRIZE BY MELINDA THOMSEN PHOTOGRAPH BY JIMMY INGENITO
Old Tractor Equipment Their armature emerges from a forging of farm equipment: rasps, chains, gears, and pipes. Metal tractor parts fashion a horse whose neck and ligaments are strong enough to face the wind with a mane of almost twenty flat files billowing in the breeze. We all move this way, right? After years of pulling it together in cut and paste jobs
Mare and Filly (repurposed steel) by Jonathan Bowling
of bad or non choices, even if our hearts resemble rusted tractor ball bearings,
stalky goats, or bold stallions. Walk over to us, and see our sprocket nut nostrils flare.
we construct and forge ourselves from a hodgepodge of muzzles and flanks into running mares,
Look at these haunches made of 20th century shovels and lawnmower parts. A trip of goats and a pigpen of swine have propane tank bellies, pulley hooks for goat horns, and porcine snouts marked by stainless steel forks. Nearby, bric-a-brac horses cast galloping shadows as we roam and graze.
MELINDA THOMSEN’s chapbooks Naming Rights (2008) and Field Rations (2011) are from Finishing Line Press, and her latest collection, Armature, is forthcoming in 2020 from Hermit Feathers Press. Her poems have recently appeared in Stone Coast Review, Tar River Poetry, The Comstock Review, NCLR, and Kakalak. A contributing editor for Tar River Poetry and Big City Lit, she teaches composition at Pitt Community College in Greenville, NC. This is her second year in a row as an Applewhite finalist.
JONATHAN BOWLING moved to Greenville in 1996 to pursue an MFA in Sculpture at ECU and has been working out of his Greenville studio ever since. Previously, he attended the University of Kentucky where he received a BFA in Sculpture and a BA in Art History. His sculptures have been featured in numerous outdoor exhibitions, as well as galleries and museums, and can be found throughout downtown Greenville. In 2011, his work Family appeared in a juried exhibit at the Coastal Discovery Museum in Hilton Head Island, SC. His winning piece was selected for purchase and installation by the Community Foundation of the Lowcountry and donated to Hilton Head’s public art collection. See more of his work on his website and in Our State magazine and NCLR 2014.