“January 1st” by Frances Klein

In the morning
I clean my son’s
bedroom deliberately,
with special care
in the corners.

I will not let the dust
his body left behind
last year
follow him
into this one.

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Frances Klein is a poet and teacher writing at the intersection of disability and gender. She is the author of the forthcoming chapbook New and Permanent (Blanket Sea 2022). She has been published by Tupelo Press and her work appears in in So it Goes: The Literary Journal of the Vonnegut Memorial Library, among others. Klein currently serves as Assistant Editor of Southern Humanities Review. Readers can find more of her work at https://kleinpoetryblog.wordpress.com/.

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Now residing in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Swedish artist Gordon Skalleberg transitioned to full-time artist after years in the family business. His relocation inspired new imagery, a distinctive twist on Southwestern features – desert landscapes, mountains, open skies – in a semi-abstract landscape style. He paints in oil on untreated wood, so that unique grain patterns are visible beneath the paint, intensifying movement and texture. Skalleberg has shown in gallery and exhibitions in Sweden since 2007, and more recently in New York and Santa Fe. Occasionally he accepts commissions – as when Netflix recently engaged him to paint portraits of Uma Thurman and Tony Goldwyn for a production. Skalleberg’s work is in museum, corporate and private collections in Sweden and the United States.