Marsh River Editions

Slightly Off Q

by

June Nirschl

Nancy Rafal

Judy Roy

Slightly Off Q is a gathering of three women poets who share a common locale and a passion for poetry. Individually and in community, they give us poems that are skillful and direct, rich with astonishing grace and generous detail. It is an offering of love, longing, loss, desire, and memory. This is a collection that is both poignant and joyful. These women have a sensibility and a naturalist's eye for the world around them and have thus produced a book of deeply-felt poems. Slightly Off Q is a memorable reading experience. With a resounding expression of joy, I want to shout, Read this! Carry this book with you. It is beautiful. It is real.

Ellen Kort

In this lively collection of poems, Door County neighbors June Nirschl, Nancy Rafal, and Judy Roy take us into landscape and their lives. Nirschl joins the Buddha-breasted swimmers at the Y, Rafal travels Door County roads with a country singer, Roy evokes the fog and tamaracks of place, the dark rooms of history. We hear their different voices—lyric, humorous, stark—celebrate grandmothers, teachers, daughters; face aging, betrayal, and death; find love. Bound together in this chapbook, they include us in a deeper appreciation of place and people.

Robin Chapman

There's nothing off about this collection. With fine attention to detail, poets Nirschl, Rafal, and Roy write of Door County's changeable weather, individual griefs and joys, family histories and scenic beauty. They bring their corner of the world alive, and make it familiar even to those of us who live far from County Q.

Judith Strasser

ISBN 978-0-9718909-5-4

Published 2004

45 pages

French flap outer wraps

$10

Rubber Bands

by June Nirschl

Her world was bound by rubber bands,

binding canceled checks, grocery coupons,

careful questions for the doctor.

Her world stretched

to home and family, baking and cleaning, fretting and

wishing,

sheepshead sometimes when she worked the family bar.

If there were joys, we never saw them,

only felt the sting of rubber bands snapping,

pent up anger released upon our heads.

Packages of rubber bands collected over years,

their number expanding,

moved from house to apartment and finally a single bed.

At the end all she had left to rubber band

was organized, squeezed into the drawer of a night stand,

sticks of gum and get well cards held immobile by a

slender strand.

She kept a rubber band upon her wrist

Even as her life force ebbed, saying

I don't know when I'll need one.

Making the Leap

in memory of Harriet Murphy

by Nancy Rafal

Well, you did it, girl. And you did it wrapped in dignity.

Each of us looks to that void and peers over the edge.

Some welcome the journey, others avert their eyes,

struggling to turn back.

You looked beyond the map’s edge and prepared

as if it were simply another change of address.

As the illness propelled you toward the light,

you tied up loose ends and offered ease

for others’ pains, their sadness reflected

in your twinkling eyes.

You left us all with memory bundles, each one

uniquely suited to its receiver.

Every Small Delight to cheer us and other

poems particularly penned.

Words—warm when needed, warning when warranted

but always wise, always witty.

You live in our hearts, lively lady,

You cheer us on and your memory bundles

help each one of us get ready

to make the leap.

Once

by Judy Roy

My mother painted the bathroom

the bitter green of winter woodlands

Clothed in avocado

she sat in her soft moss chair

knitting a succession of dresses

lime, holly, grass, jade, hunter

One Christmas she gave me

a forest-colored bedroom

with bleached, hard-angled furniture

and not one ruffle

After I left home

I twirled through life

in red and yellow crepe de Chine

high heels tapping

until I grew too old to dance

and knit myself

a sea-green dress

TO ORDER:

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Send check, made out to Marsh River Editions, to:

Marsh River Editions

Linda Aschbrenner

M233 Marsh Road

Marshfield, WI 54449

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