Circular Way II by Louis Staeble

In Raqqa, Syria by Carl Boon

A girl sings in a bedroom 
of gestures and dilemmas,
but the gods pull her back
because the gods
are gripped by men
who carry guns and flags
and cannot sing.
 
Her father pulls a cart
of newsprint home
and wonders why she
lights a cigarette,
blows the smoke
through the window,
for the fields are dark
this hour and full of men.
 
Far from her, bombs
drop where her brother
lies in a ravine reading
Tom Stoppard in Arabic,
having concluded conclusions
will come. This happens
while her elders eat
apple cake and listen
to the news on the radio.

---

​Carl Boon lives in Izmir, Turkey, where he teaches courses in American culture and literature at 9 Eylül University. His poems appear in dozens of magazines, most recently Burnt Pine, Two Peach, Lunch Ticket, and Poetry Quarterly. He is also a 2016 Pushcart Prize nominee.

---

​Louis Staeble, fine arts photographer and poet, lives in Bowling Green, Ohio. His photographs have appeared in “Agave”, “Blinders Journal”, “Blue Hour”, “Conclave Journal”, "Elsewhere Magazine", “GFT Magazine”, “Fifth Wednesday Journal”, “Four Ties Literary Review”, "Inklette Magazine", “Microfiction Monday”, "Paper Tape Magazine", “Qwerty”, “Revolution John”, “Rose Red Review”, “Sonder Review”, “Timber Journal”, “Tishman Review” and “Your Impossible Voice”. His web pages can be viewed either at http://staeblestudioa.weebly.com or http://lstaebl.wix.com/closeup.