Issue 2.3
Fall 2022
Rikki Santer
Coins
None of my stories measure
up no crazy between the ears no
identity pain nailed to my
skull no viscous
ideas no housed rage no
wronged heritage pacing
in the wings no sticky
schoolbooks, flimflammery,
swallowtailed anything no
bruised tongue no broken
drunks no tracked
arms no shivering
in back alleys no sweaty
I’ll kill you
if you tell
no bullets, no
knives no
fire, flood, blood
fragments of war No
again and again
my fables step back
to the end
of the line where soft
and privileged already
had their turn
coins taken out
of circulation.
Rikki Santer's poems have appeared in various publications including Ms. Magazine, Poetry East, Heavy Feather Review, Slab, Slipstream, [PANK], Crab Orchard Review, RHINO, Grimm, Hotel Amerika and The Main Street Rag. Her work has received many honors including six Pushcart and three Ohioana and Ohio Poet book award nominations as well as a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Her eleventh poetry collection, Stopover, which is in conversation with the original Twilight Zone series was recently published by Luchador Press.