Issue 30 | Spring 2024

College

Jeffrey Kingman

On Mt. Kilimanjaro

we sat, our first date.

The cat took a bath.

We licked each other’s

necks, whispered Gregorian chant.

Too-loud people abrupted us.

How to steer a blue-faced talker

we taught each other.

On our second date we went to a

movie. There were flies.

In her kitchen

the sourdough flipped itself out of the toaster.

Cassavetes was a misogynist

but we didn’t listen.

We formed our own study group

in the dank basement

joined by the water heater.

We said goodbye, left our notebooks behind.

Mark Twain on a riverboat.

The old man on the sea drowned. The net was ours.

We stumbled onto a rampart

groped a turret

got lost.

Still are.

She frowns up at the

30-foot ceiling, says maybe

we should always live in the castle.

About the Author

Jeffrey Kingman lives by the Napa River in Vallejo, CA. His poetry collection, Beyond That Hill I Gather, was published by Finishing Line Press in June of 2021. His poetry chapbook, On a Road, was published by Finishing Line Press in December of 2019. He is the winner of the 2018 Eyelands Book Award (Greece) for an unpublished poetry book, a finalist in the 2018 Hillary Gravendyk poetry book competition, and a finalist in the 2022 Prime Number Magazine Award for Poetry. He has poems published in PANK, Clackamas Literary Review, Visitant, and others. Jeffrey is a copy editor at Omnidawn Publishing. He has a Master’s degree in Music Composition and has been playing drums in rock bands most of his life.