Image: “Alignment II” by John Paul Caponigro. “The Space Between” was written by Amelie Flagler for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, March 2024, and selected as the Artist’s Choice. (PDF / JPG) __________ Amelie Flagler THE SPACE BETWEEN Perhaps equidistance is a secret to be explored. I suggest it’s not something, I believe it’s not nothing, But a perfect illusion of what comes in between. The things that we miss at the height of a scene. Not as grand as the sky, or as low as the sands, The air that’s unnoticed as it flows through the lands, The blank space. The missed place. The dirt betwee ..read more

Ruth Bavetta THE NEW BATTERY SHOULD COME TOMORROW Got up this morning thinking about going to see my daughter. Which led to thinking about the remote for the garage door opener  which had stopped working when I replaced the battery.   Which led to searching online for garage door repairmen. Which led to wanting to check the remote again before I called a repairman.   Which led to getting dressed so I could go outside. Which led to  remembering to brush my teeth. Which led to discovering my Waterpik  wasn’t working. Which led to researching online to find out  what ..read more

Kenny Williams THE RETURN When I returned to earth after forty thousand years there were no more graves, no more cathedrals. No public parks, no public. I looked everywhere and couldn’t find a single statue of a hero put up by a committee. There was simply none of that sadness that can only be satisfied by a dose of dry-eyed Mahler, sex in a sand trap or hunters in the snow. There were, understand, no elevators. There were no jailbirds to be prayed for, no thieves broken backward across the tops of their crosses, no city walls or citadels hung by a thread over the pit of the sky. There had bee ..read more

Chera Hammons WHAT TO DO IF YOU’RE BARELY SCRAPING BY Have you tried paying down the balances of your debts? That’s always the first step to financial freedom. Have you tried having a savings account? Here’s what you do. Start by saving a penny, then double what you save every day. On the second day, set two pennies aside. On the third day, four. Soon you’ll have pennies coming out your ears. Have you tried making more money? Have you tried filling out online surveys in your spare time? Have you tried changing your career? If none of these work for you, there’s always something you have right ..read more

Michael Dylan Welch, C.R. Manley & Tanya McDonald SOMETHING FISHY a rengay written on a Washington State Ferry salmon time— the path to the creek free of cobwebs mdw   he warns us again— don’t eat the pufferfish crm   field trip— the cold stare of the passing shark tm   the guppy circling down the toilet mdw   motionless angelfish— still waiting for my order crm   one fish, two fish I switch off her bedside lamp tm   —from Rattle #83, Spring 2024 Tribute to Collaboration __________ Michael Dylan Welch, C.R. Manley, & Tanya McDonald: “‘Something Fishy’ is ..read more

Matthew Shelton & Timothy Liu BABEL Scattered across the islands of the Galápagos archipelago there are half a dozen species of lizard that rely upon a method of communication comprised of what can only be called “push-ups.” When one lizard encounters another, each takes its turn bobbing head and torso up and down in a complex and jerky system of frantic interaction. By this means, lizards of each species establish territorial authority, reinforce social hierarchies, even engage in mating rituals.    It appears that these lizards evolved from a single species settling the islands ..read more

Michele Root-Bernstein, Laszlo Slomovits & Jennifer Burd WAYMARKS smalle raine downe         … this longing    for a change mrb            shall I compare thee        sunlight caught in the web ls                   new preferred pronoun               did gyre and gimble               in the wabe jb     let us go then, you and I   (motorized wheelchairs) mrb         ..read more

Dick Allen CONSIDERING THE TREBONITES The world grew stranger … he had almost lost the feeling of being on a strange planet; here it returned upon him with desolating force. It was no longer ‘the world,’ scarcely even ‘a world’: it was a planet, a star, a waste place in the universe, millions of miles from the world of men …” —C.S. Lewis When we interviewed them, we found they had no insurance and believed in great acts of page turning. “The heavens are filled with dead end runs,” they said, “angel-headed hipsters, old washing machines. Sometimes you can see the outline of a woman’s elbow and ..read more

Ansuya Patel & Batya Weinbaum COURAGE When I wrote a check for fifty dollars,  that’s all I have I said to the taxi driver   who locked the doors of his black Mercedes. He drove like a maniac down a dirt road.   Shall I drive, I asked. Don’t you trust me. I’m not going to kill you, he yelled like    he was doing me a favour. This is where  you hang up faith, watch it somersault into air.    He placed a hand on my thigh. You don’t want  to touch me, I may have some awful disease.    His fist hit the steering wheel. Crazy bitch,  sh ..read more

Nancy Beagle THE WEDDING DOLL She boxed me—saving me, she said, for the wedding. She shall be my centerpiece, stand next to the cake. That was when she was twelve.   I was a birthday gift to a girl who loved dolls. A girl who had dreams, pictured herself, apron-clad, in a sunny kitchen fixing pot roast for a husband, four children.   It is now 65 years later, and I’m stuck up in the attic, like a child’s cradle outgrown or a rocking horse no longer needed. And I am still in the turquoise box   with magenta lettering proclaiming Madame Alexander. We, the most cherished dolls of t ..read more