COUNTERCLAIM REVIEW
Issue 4: the Unknown
2024
published by counterclaim (c-c)
collage: “Diagnosis: Uncertain” by Janina Aza Karpinska
Weekend at Baxter’s and The Last Chance Dance
by Lenny DellaRocca
Some of us are already here though the real estate
is not on the map.
It’s a matter of what
constitutes Here when one
says it like it’s meant
to be a real place
such as a circus
with painted ponies
and a replica of
a machine that makes
fairies, and a fake
gypsy telling fortunes
for coins.
We felt it as we
came through the arbor.
The placemats are full of
monkeys, and there are rattles
on plates in case one needs the butler, Slowly.
It’s a part of the show
and we’re asked not
to ask about it,
the dynamite, I mean,
is it real, is it something
for later. I know approximately
several people here.
I don’t know, Grace says.
they’re acting drunk.
I remind her that this whole
affair is about the others who
have just arrived.
Outside the window one
of them in corduroy
slacks waves his mask. He’s
trying to get my attention.
I pretend I’m looking at the engine under the table.
By the time we came in the jugglers were done and the band
was playing Hoagy
Carmichael. Nobody seemed
to mind the stranger
taking things,
pulling down
the blinds.
Milk was spilled,
and the dancers
were brightly dressed
and excited.
Grace and I
looked at each other
in the mirror
next to the fat engine.
The music got louder
as the sirens went off
outside. It had been happening everywhere, the weather
coming in for a strange
landing from the sky.
All afternoon speeding
cars made streaks
on front lawns,
but nobody cared.
We could hear the wind
trying to get in
like a tiger going
for swine in a rose
bush. The bangs
got louder each time.
Grace, I said, I love
you, and she said Ditto,
Ted. Does love
outlast us, I said, does it
make sense in the end for us to kiss. I think so, she said.
—
Lenny DellaRocca is founding editor and publisher of South Florida Poetry Journal-SoFloPoJo and publisher/editor of Witchery, a place for Epoems, and editor/curator of the Chameleon Chimera, an Anthology of Florida Poets (Purple Ink Press). He’s been twice nominated for a Pushcart and Best of Net. He has invented the Epoem, a new form on display at his new poetry journal, Witchery, embedded online at southfloridapoetryjournal.com.
Night strips away the names of things
in the dark, every gas station is a guest house
stop lights blink goodbye hello without presumption
every stark, human thing casts a garish glow
it’s nighttime and it’s summer
fake smiles and empty grocery store aisles
promises and devastations,
having no reason to commence or conclude
late night fast food workers
wait like wind-up toys behind peculiar windows
blind to each others’ strangeness
vacant, unmet figures at rest
red line of the horizon, like an exit sign
beyond the anonymous wild
the only wayfinder— the divine aura
of the Gas Haven, efflorescent
there’s an emptiness to these things
tall and deep, like an echoing stairwell
like the note found too late
on the front door, in the dusk—Come out for a swim.
a missed memory. transient. passed without brushing.
maybe there is a beach in another universe
with fluorescent sun
but here, in the small hours,
there is only a body
not coming or going
just frozen in the act of reaching
—
Shannon Cates, a UX designer living in Annapolis, Maryland, finds comfort in rainy days and the written word. When not crafting digital experiences, she’s immersed in poetry, often with her cat by her side. Her work has been published in Humana Obscura, Flora Fiction, and Outlander among other journals.
Destination Anywhere by Liz Jakimow
When We Flourished
by David Matthews
I stepped outside into the rain
with thought to chance upon
one of those dreamy little poems
where rooftops dance
Harpo Marx
and peacocks in the snow
the kind I used to write
the ones I used to know
the ones that came
in a clarity of paint
and hieroglyph
a cello beside a fountain
a red bridge floating above the blue river
the bank where we lazed
and read Keats in the clouds
while the dragon boats swept past
those poems
when we flourished
the air bright and sensual as grass
green and soft beneath your thigh
your lips on my eyelids like the sun
your hair fragrant with delight
—
David Matthews is a native of the South Carolina Midlands, poet, runner, residing in Portland, Oregon, since 1998. Poems have appeared in Adelaide Literary Magazine, Quill & Parchment, Steam Ticket, Ghost Town Poetry Vol. Two, and other publications. He writes about politics and current affairs as conscience and honest indignation dictate, and about literary and intellectual matters as the spirit moves, at David Matthews Portable Bohemia.
Sustenance
by Audra Burwell
wild and bitter breeding
forged your gypsy soul
a birth beneath
China-red sunsets
earth spouting
domesticated sweetness
into my
waiting mouth
the taste of you like
amplified honeydew
voice seeded velvet
only I can touch
like the sound of
mid-November snow
thrumming against
skin burnt sublime
sweat-tangled
and raw
my love for you
a migration
of white-feathered flesh
on your doorstep
honey-starved and
waiting
—
Audra Burwell earned her BA in Creative Writing from California State University, Fresno. She is currently pursuing an MFA degree in Creative Writing with a specialization in poetry. Her full-length published works include Entropia and The 13 Brides of Alastair Crypt, both multimedia collaborations featuring fashion lines designed by Fastened By Lyn and photography provided by Raven & Crow. Her work has also been published by New Note Poetry, Palaver Journal, Flora Fiction, Deep Overstock, Dream Noir, Carcinogenic Poetry, Snapdragon Journal, Sand Hills Magazine, Serpentine Zine Literary Magazine, CWAA, HAIS, San Joaquin Literary Review, Superpresent Magazine, and many others, as well as appearing on the Do Fiction Podcast. Audra is a member of Sigma Tau Delta English Honor Society. She has headed literary workshops at the Young Writers Conference and served on the editorial board of Spectrum. Her poems “Residing in Your Veins” and “Concealed Oasis” were selected as finalists for Fresno State’s Art Song Festival. Audra’s poem “Shunned Oasis” was published and featured on Our California: Poems from Fresno County, a literary advocacy project established by California Poet Laureate Lee Herrick, in partnership with the California Arts Council.
Boléro
by Vanessa Y. Niu
It’s the red carpet, the green drapes.
The flowered canvas of a room.
Lilac path perfume settling dust
on the bookshelf. Opened peacock feather
fan. Kandinsky whose color floods.
The silence after you went. It’s got to go.
Night, bullet of a glance passed in an old
age, a different room, with colorful and
beautiful people. Split a wishbone into
two time zones, the I don’t take anything
from you so I don’t have to give it back. I was sick
when you got that close. Pulled near hard, easily,
showed the tender flesh early. You were
already full. Give it up, give it back. I want you
to say it. Jagged sax swing—sax man, hey,
a little softer—the night slowed.
Tell me something: You were the bard.
It was never mine to say.
—
Vanessa Y. Niu is a writer and editor from New York City. She was a runner-up for the 2024 New York State Youth Poet Laureate, and her work has been recognized by the Kennedy Center, Teen Vogue, the Guggenheim, Brave New Voices, and NYFW. Off the lined page, her work has been set to music in collaborations with Juilliard and Interlochen composers.
Hidden Lake by Taylor Stevens
Visual Art
Janina Aza Karpinska is a multi-disciplinary Artist-Poet from the south coast of England. Poetry informs her collage-making with an eye for the 'chime' of pattern, motif, and colour; the rhythm and flow of line. She works quickly and intuitively, trusting to the process of making disparate elements work together; with an innate sense of order, she re-configures chaos and brokenness to make a new, cohesive whole, as an act of creative redemption. Her work has appeared in Bath House Journal; Young Ravens Literary Review; Grim & Gilded; The Empty Mirror; 3 Elements Review, Heart of Flesh, Blue Mesa Review, and Antler Velvet, among others.
Liz Jakimow is a poet and photographer who lives in the beautiful valley of Araluen in Australia, where she is inspired by the mountains and nature that surround her. After someone she loved passed away, Liz set herself the task of taking one photo everyday. At the same time, she was also expressing a lot of her grief through poetry. The photos and poems from this initial three-month grieving period came together in an exhibition and book titled A journey with grief: exploring loss through photography and poetry.
Taylor Stevens is an aspiring writer and photographer from the Pacific Northwest. She has had an interest in writing all her life, often found scribbling poems and creative stories into her notebooks as a kid. She is passionate about traveling, capturing moments in photographs, reading exciting stories, and seeking adventure in life.
2024
counterclaim is committed to producing work that counters normative and traditional forms