Summer 2010
New Poetry
by Michael Hazani and Travis Lund
Mirror in Yellow Flowers by Sarah Stinnett
City Rains
by Travis Lund
Not for here the gentle sweep across a flat expanse
Over Kansas or Iowa
Closer, so the crops will grow.
No ominous massing of
Cumulonimbic pillars, arched and huge behind the mountain
While a shaman gestures with a staff to bring them
Rain comes to the city tainted.
Melancholy as an Eighteenth-century
Poet seated on some lonely hill in England or France
Penning strictly metered lines about love unrequited
Or lost to the grave.
Pellets of water sweep like Napoleonic armies
Through the streets and hammer the buildings
A great, disorganized percussion, smelling vaguely of
Exhaust fumes and sweat and the grit of sidewalks.
That would accumulate where the streets were cracked or pitted.
This afternoon I sit by the window and gaze out
At the storm, grateful I have no need to go outside.
I remember as a child they were things of mythic intensity.
Beautiful and a little bit frightening
Pregnant with a near future of splashing through massive puddles
Now, I always carry an umbrella.
Worried over arriving somewhere
Soaking wet and without a towel.
Summersong
by Michael Hazani
Summer steamed with swirling colors
Outside the room that we called home
Inside, the twelve inch television
Projected shades of monochrome
Outside the traffic overpowered
Every song of every bird
Inside, we drenched ourselves in silence
Dreamt of sounds we never heard
In the church they gave communion
In the synagogues they prayed
But you and I were playing Eden
On the leafy blanket that we’d laid–
Summer came and summer passed,
No seasoned love is made to last;
The last and least of who we were
Is drifting, leaf-like, everywhere.
Michael Hazani is attending his final year at Berklee. A few of his favorite things are: writing, biking, Skittles, and chasing dreams. Travis Lund currently studies at Berklee, and this is his first work featured in FUSION. Sarah Stinnett’s photograph “Abstract Lights” was featured in the magazine in 2009; she also currently studies at Berklee.