Summer Poetry in Rattle

The Summer 2014 issue of Rattle has some great poems. I only skimmed through a few of them, but each one I read made me happy I did. Here’s a snippet of Nic Alea’s “River,” which opens up the issue:

I think I am in the back of
the car slamming my head against
the seat, I think I am screaming, no,
careless, maybe, I think I am too fast
over this canyon, I think my tape player
is stuck singing about the rain or
a field or no, this is a canyon and canyons have the once upon a river stuck to
the bottom, I’m going to hit the bottom
and it’s going to burn like the summer
and we feel good peeling the dead skin
off our shoulders and I press my thumb
into your chest to watch my imprint glow
against you, I think you forgot about me,
maybe we kissed goodbye on your bed with
the windows open and the orange house across
the street steamed like a fat sun and I feel all over
the wood floor…