Alice Sketches

a nocturnal ripple stretched flat
across a night desert sand yellow
by day now blue and somehow
evil     a tent pitched in the midst
glowing like a candle in a
manhole    perhaps a woman inside
preparing a spell or a torture
ritual    perhaps a mouthful of
pebbles just past her lips
perhaps a bandaged scalp




About Alyse:



I am currently the poetry editor of So to Speak: A Feminist Journal of Language and Art, based
out of George Mason University, where I am pursuing my MFA in poetry and teaching
undergraduate English.  My work has appeared or is forthcoming in RHINO, Salamander, The
Minnesota Review, elimae, Moria, Dark Sky Magazine, and others.