Pine oak



Pine oak the elm. 

Brick cement.

Fill the light with dark.

Fill the still places 

with steel. Fill air 

pockets. Fill pots 

to piss in. Filibuster,

filament, Philadelphia.

Detroit Jimmy. 

Duquesne waltz.

Walla Walla triple.

When she learned 

her own cancer, she

said, “Shitty.”

When he heard four 

operations, his ghost 

flew out of his future and 

he knew the way to

the gun.

When she called the

brother, she talked of 

life-taking to dodge 

the awful pain.

When he found those 

left behind, he looked into 

endless eyes.

Pine oak the elm. 

Write soft words.

Sing tuneless hymns.

Battle hymn the republic. 

Battle-test the forests 

of Dunsinane. 

Author Bio: Patrick T. Reardon was a Chicago Tribune reporter for 32 years and, since leaving the paper, has published six poetry collections, including Darkness on the Face of the Deep and Puddin’: The Autobiography of a Baby, A Memoir in Prose Poems. His manuscript Every Marred Thing: A Time in America won the 2024 Faulkner-Wisdom Prize for poetry collection from the Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society of New Orleans. He has been nominated three times for a Pushcart Prize for poetry.

Artwork: “Anubis Becomes Osiris”

Artist Bio: Robb Kunz hails from Teton Valley, Idaho. He received his MFA in creative writing from the University of Idaho. He currently teaches writing at Utah State University and is the Art and Design Faculty Advisor of Sink Hollow: An Undergraduate Literary Journal. His art has been published in Peatsmoke Journal, Red Ogre Review, Fatal Flaw Literary Magazine, and New Delta Review. His art is upcoming in Ponder Review, Glassworks Magazine, and Anodyne Magazine.