A small-town downtown—
after you paint a brick wall, 
you soon regret it. 

Sun, wind, rain, and passersby 
all leave their marks on the wall. 

Before long, you learn 
the first layer of paint needs 
another layer, 

another, then another, 
until you give up, let paint 

decay into Old-Town charm. 

—After Old Brenham Wall by Christopher Woods:

Old Brenham Wall (photograph) © by Christopher Woods.

All rights reserved. Image first published in New Feathers Anthology
(Spring 2024), and appears here with photographer’s permission.

Christopher Woods

is a writer and photographer who lives in Texas. His monologue show, Twelve from Texas, was performed recently in NYC by Equity Library Theatre. His poetry collection, Maybe Birds Would Carry It Away, is forthcoming from Kelsay Books, which also published his chapbook What Comes, What Goes. In addition, he’s the author of a novella, Hearts in the Dark (published in Running Wild Novella Anthology, Volume 4, Book 1; 2020); a collection of brief fictions and prose poems, Under a Riverbed Sky (Panther Creek Press, 2001); a book of stage monologues for actors, Heart Speak (Stone River Press, 2002); and a Young Adult novel set in 1943, Dream Patch (Corona Publishing, 1985).

His work has appeared in hundreds of publications, with writing in Another Chicago Magazine, The Galway Review, Glimmer Train, New England Review, New Orleans Review, Phantom Kangaroo, and The Southern Review, among numerous others; and photographs in 2 Bridges Review, Bracken, Longridge Review, Oxford Magazine (Issue 45), Pank, Peacock Journal, San Pedro River Review, Streetlight Magazine, Tiferet Journal, and Young Ravens Literary Review, among many others. Woods has received residencies from The Ucross Foundation and the Edward Albee Foundation, and a grant from the Mary Roberts Rinehart Foundation.

Artist’s online portfolio:
https://christopherwoods.zenfolio.com/f861509283

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ The Photographs of Christopher Woods, photo-essay in Street Light Magazine (5 April 2024)

⚡ Ghost Happy Hour, prose poem by Woods in Phantom Kangaroo (Issue 22, January 2016)

⚡ Final Appointment, flash-length play by Woods in KYSO Flash (Issue 2, Winter 2015)

Gary S. Rosin

is a Contributing Editor of MacQueen’s Quinterly. His poetry and haiga have appeared, or are forthcoming, in various literary reviews and anthologies, including Chaos Dive Reunion (Mutabilis Press, 2023); contemporary haibun (Volume 17, Red Moon Press, 2022); Concho River Review, Sulphur River, Texas Poetry Calendar; The Ekphrastic Review; and Visions International.

Two of his ekphrastic poems appear in Silent Waters, photographs by George Digalakis (Athens, 2017). He is the author of two chapbooks, Standing Inside the Web (Bear House Publishing, 1990) and Fire and Shadows (Legal Studies Forum, 2008). His poems “Black Dogs” and “Viewing the Dead” were nominated for Pushcart Prizes.

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ Out of the Haze, collaborative haiga with photograph by George Digalakis and poem by Gary S. Rosin in MacQueen’s Quinterly (Issue 8, June 2021); nominated for, and selected for publication in, Contemporary Haibun 17 (Red Moon Press, 2022)

⚡ Featured Poet: Gary S. Rosin in MacQueen’s Quinterly (Issue 7, March 2021)

⚡ Crossing Kansas in The Wild Word (7 February 2020); includes audio of Rosin reading his poem

⚡ Two Readings: “Apparition” and “Black Dogs” by Gary S. Rosin for Texas Poetry Calendar 2015 at the Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston, Texas (20 September 2014).

See also Black Dogs here in MacQ (Issue 12, March 2022), which was nominated in October 2022 by MacQ for the 48th annual Pushcart Prize (2024 edition).