Tony Schanuel
The Three Landscapes
I realize I can walk miles backward, not
once glancing over the shoulder. I can feel
the temperature of all things: love crusted
over a glazed pot, lightning that singes
the grass, clumps of clay in the yard.
Let fatigue rest in the intersection
of limbs. There will always be someone
to spread ash for the plants, turn the soil
with bone meal. The slop is churned
every hundred years, the speck on a leaf
floats to the jade estuary at the lip
of the land. What I covet sprouts wings
and flies to the dark cavern, hangs feet up
for nine months to acquire tissues and grow
skin in the womb deposited with memories
from three landscapes— the river town,
the city by the sea, the crowded metropolis.
Uma Gowrishankar is a writer and artist from Chennai, South India. Her poems have appeared in online and print journals that include Yearbook of Indian Poetry in English 2020-21, Poetry at Sangam, City: A Journal Of South Asian Literature, Qarrtsiluni, Vayavya, Hibiscus: Poems that Heal and Empower, Shimmer Spring, Buddhist Poetry Review, Silver Birch Press, Entropy, Curio Poetry. Her full-length collection of poetry Birthing History was published by Leaky Boot Press.
Tony Schanuel is an award-winning photographer and visual artist who has fused a professional background in photography, digital technology, and painting and mark making to create fine art that transcends those mediums. His work has been featured in Digital Imaging Magazine, Computer Graphic Magazine, Wild Heart Journal, St. Louis Design Magazine, and is a featured artist in Cyber Palette and Extreme Graphics, two books showcasing digital artists and their work. He has exhibited at the Florence Biennale and his art is held in private and corporate collections including the Fine Arts Museum of Houston permanent photographic collection.