Not like I thought or remembered. Not prairies or worms. Not afternoon thunderstorms. Not braless aunts, tribes of topless kids hiking in boots, frayed red laces, trees, paths, all that long hair. Not a park of girls squealing and cupping water balloons, We’ve got boobies! We’ve won the booby prize! Not magic. Not fay villages in every fallen trees. Not a walk of unmeasurable distance. Not fields of dandelion, clover, frisbees, grills, open coolers. Not picnickers or overnight tents. No bare feet, bottles, pipes, or humidity. It’s a place with a name I forgot. You touched my hand, a map in your phone and another memorized—the one you pointed at in the air as if I could see. My map, part bewilderment, part retold story. Our map together, once torn, but now mended, a new chart to unfold.
~ Laura Madeline Wiseman
Laura Madeline Wiseman is the author of 25 books and chapbooks and the editor of Women Write Resistance, selected for the Nebraska 150 Booklist. Her collaborative book Intimates and Fools is a Nebraska Book Award 2015 Honor Book. Her latest book is Velocipede. She teaches at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Guest Editor Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, Kansas Poet Laureate Emerita, is the author of 23 books, including Miriam’s Well, a novel; Needle in the Bone, a non-fiction book on the Holocaust; and a forthcoming book of poetry, How Time Moves: New and Selected Poems. Founder of Transformative Language Arts, Mirriam-Goldberg also leads writing workshops widely, coaches people on writing and right livelihood through the arts, and consults with businesses and organizations on creativity.
The Coop: A Poetry Cooperative 