projection 
her radiance would immerse me
send me fearlessly down
without suit or snorkel
to a gypsy wagon reef
its fantasia colors surging
an aurora spawning ground,
neons of innocent hues,
tetras like iridescent phalluses
roaming dreamy pink caves
seeking safety and secrets
of numinous origins
as they cruised.
I can still taste each portion
on the silver plate she served
on what’s left of my resistance
before I saw the mirror.
fist published in Mono
BIO: Tom Weiss
I grew up on a cattle ranch on the eastern margin of The Everglades in an area that is now suburban Ft. Lauderdale. Having attended boys boarding schools from the second grade through high school likely twisted my psyche; but, I seem to write mostly love poems, so there you go.
I moved to Knoxville in 1974 intending to stay a year, and I’ve been here ever since, so it looks like I’m here to stay.
I spent a lifetime toiling in commercial real estate management and development until the pandemic retired me kicking and screaming, kindly allowing me to come out of the literary closet. My publishing history extends all the way back to December 2021. Nine poems have been published in four journals to date as I’m also working on my short fiction voice. Appearing in this journal with these remarkable photographers is a waking wet dream.
Tom Weiss
2614 Fairmont Blvd.
Knoxville, TN 37917
865.607.5500
BIO: Dawn Watson
Visual artist Dawn Watson is a longtime resident of New York’s Hudson Valley. After a career as a professional dancer/choreographer based in New York City, Watson shifted her artistic practice to photography. Nature serves as her muse, her subject of concern, a source of solace and healing. Her work has been featured online and in print, including Diffusion X Magazine, Elizabeth Avedon Journal, Griffin Museum of Photography blog, Lenscratch, Shots Magazine, SXSE Magazine and What Will You Remember. Her photographs and artist books have been in juried exhibitions the United States and Europe, including the Albrecht-Kemper Museum, Center for Fine Art Photography, Davis-Orton Gallery, Foto Forum, Ph21 Gallery, Photographic Center NW, Tilt Gallery, SXSE Gallery/Magazine, Tang Teaching Museum and in solo exhibitions at the Griffin Museum of Photography, The Los Angeles Center for Photography and Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts. Her work is held in private collections and at The Lodge at Woodloch. Based in Hastings on Hudson, NY, Watson continues her long association as board member of regional environmental organization Scenic Hudson, Inc.
Dawn Watson
347-410-0877
