let me fail
first to reassure you
that saying too much
could kill us

as surely as silence
is deadly

it’s a fine line

at once desired and abandoned
by anyone attuned to the speech
I rehearse over the sink

an airplane drowns
my voice
as I come to

the heart of the matter
critical
details muddy beyond recognition

listening is pretending
to hear

hearing the dumb
luck of the listener

spilling forth between us

caught on land
camera caught on cassette recorder

in the distance
nothing but buildings
save sky

blue enough it hurts to look

Fred Schmalz is a poet and artist and the author of Action in the Orchards (Nightboat 2019). He lives in Chicago, where makes art with Susy Bielak and co-hosts the Poetry & Biscuits reading series with Carrie Olivia Adams.

Rebecca Palmer has been especially interested in the poetic and expressive possibilities of the photographic medium. A recurring theme in her work is affirmation of our human connection to the natural world. She is a native Californian and is based in the San Francisco Bay area. During undergraduate years at Stanford University, she studied painting, drawing and literature. She earned a MFA in photography at San Jose State University. Her photographs have been exhibited in California as well as in national and international exhibits. Her work is in many private collections and is held in public collections including the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford, California; Art Center Santa Monica, Barcelona, Spain; and the Bibliotheque National, Paris, France. Her work is represented by Circuit Gallery in Toronto, Canada. Website: https://www.rebeccapalmerstudio.com