A gray ship slides
past low, gold fog.
Straight morning rays
shape a scrim and
kiss the empty
prison with amber.
The bay is still.
A black pilot boat
carves through water
that’s flat and silver
as a young girl’s mirror.
~ Mark J. Mitchell’s latest novel, The Magic War just appeared from Loose Leaves Publishing. He studied writing at UC Santa Cruz under Raymond Carver and George Hitchcock. His work has appeared in the several anthologies and hundreds of periodicals. Three of his chapbooks— Three Visitors, Lent, 1999, and Artifacts and Relics—and the novel, Knight Prisoner are available through Amazon and Barnes and Noble.. He lives with his wife Joan Juster and makes a living pointing out pretty things in San Francisco.