s w i f t s  &  s l o w s: a quarterly of crisscrossings

Trash Trees
Carrie Crow & John Greiner

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I

I say begin and it is winter.  We are bare beneath the snow, bound to the tranquility of the
earth.  Above the branches you search for the nakedness of the flesh.  Unfulfilled I sigh,
stripped bones burdened.

II

Keep quiet in the white tangle of sails.  The windy fantasy in flight is venomous.  Its
fantasist followers are delirious in their want of ashes and climb to the heights where
the blue nest turns black.

III

Upon the waves this veil has dropped singing while the sirens whose eyes are dream
drunk kiss fingers of rain.The ocean leans on the shoulder of the pilot, the sky is the
source of his liquidity in the midst of these flames.

IV

Approaching the angel with the arrow at the ready I cried along with the wind raging. My
tears were shed upon the ocean and its cities so far under that were long ago turned into
myths.

V

I journeyed beneath the moon until the day came with an expediency that forced me to
grovel amongst the pillars of stone and skyscrapers that would never touch the vault of
humblest thrills.  I smiled with black teeth at morning fermenting, knowing all the
moments that would come.

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Carrie Crow is a fine art photographer whose work has been exhibited internationally at the Queens Museum of Art, Newspace Center for Photography, Curious Matter, Streit House Space, the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, FIDM à Paris Mairie IX, Kunst Altonale Hamburg, and Galleria Perela during the 54th and 56th Venice Biennales.  Her work has also appeared in The New York Times, The New York Post, Time Out New York, The Associated Press and in literary and arts publications such as 3:AM Magazine (London), SAND Journal (Berlin), Upstairs at Duroc (Paris), andVersal 12 (Amsterdam).  Her first zine, The Quiet Zoo was published by Streit House Editions in 2017. Born and raised in Los Angeles and a long time resident of New York City, Carrie frequently travels and works in Paris.

John Greiner is a Pushcart Prize nominated poet. His work has been published in numerous magazines. Greiner’s chapbooks, broadsides and collections of poetry and short stories include Turnstile Burlesque (Crisis Chronicles Press, 2017), The Laundrymen (Wandering Head Press, 2016), Bodega Roses (Good Cop/Bad Cop Press, 2014), Modulation Age (Wandering Head Press, 2012), Shooting Side Glances (ISMs Press, 2011) and Relics From a Hell’s Kitchen Pawn Shop (Ronin Press, 2010).