Photography © Ann Hillesland

 

Black Stalks

Draped in overnight death
where it starts and ends
people marched excessively—
Trapped

Ate the black stalks
poison—
It was rational
that complex search for food;
one-quarter withered and died.

Often, these things
are not seen ahead
in the moon’s shadings
the uneven rain

in the tea leaves.

 

Susan Isla Tepper presented her darkly comic play Clandestine in an Equity Premiere Staged-reading, hosted by SHOPTALK, on June 10 at EAG Guild Hall Theatre, NYC. Her latest Novel Hair of a Fallen Angel was published by Spuyten Duyvil Books. A twenty-year writer, she’s written 12 published books of fiction and poetry and 7 stage plays. Honors include 21 Pushcart Prize Nominations. Her play The Crooked Heart concerning artist Jackson Pollock premiered on October 25, 2022 at the Irish Repertory Theatre in NYC. Adapted from an earlier novel, it was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Susan is a Brand Ambassador for The Galway Review. A Youtube music video for her latest novel can be found here.

Ann Hillesland is a California-based writer and photographer. Her work has been published in many journals, including Fourth Genre, Sou’wester, Bayou, The Laurel Review, Ghost Parachute, and SmokeLong Quarterly. Her fiction has been selected for the Wigleaf Top 50 Very Short Fictions, been nominated for Pushcart Prizes, and has been presented onstage by Stories On Stage. She is a graduate of the MFA program at Queen’s University of Charlotte.