Six of our beautiful writers have been nominated for the 2013 Pushcart prize. Over the next week, we will feature each of them, along with the nominated work.
The first nominee is Tobi Cogswell, already a multiple Pushcart nominee. In 2012 and 2013, she was short-listed for the Fermoy International Poetry Festival. In 2013, she received Honorable Mention for the Rachel Sherwood Poetry Prize. Her latest chapbook is “Lapses & Absences”, (Blue Horse Press). She is co-editor of San Pedro River Review.
The Color of Forgiveness
The shade of blue on his tattoo was the amethyst
of bruises and missed directions,
of billowing factories,
sump pumps and lunchpails,
and the river, soiled and lovely.
The amethyst of pounded knuckles four days later
wrapped in ice, so blue it turns white,
color that has witnessed
its share of events in a city turned bad
but still beautiful, in the way that Old Jim,
shuffling and clumsy, buys one rose
on Sundays to take to his wife,
her eyes greyed-over with age and tired,
to see her smile, in her jewel-toned sweater,
the color that always made him happy
to know he was coming back
from a back-breaking day, the color
of midnight guiding him home.
pea river journal 
the sense of color is good here (and i ot to know) (who am i?)
sump pumps and lunchpails,
and the river, soiled and lovely.
The amethyst of pounded knuckles four days later
wrapped in ice, so blue it turns white,
and the lines i quote- we need this intensity