Chelsea Smart and “Raining 101”
Chelsea Smart appears in Issue 40 with “Raining 101,” a poem preserved in full. The poem moves through vineyard weather, spring growth, storm damage, roads, an ambulance, fallen petals, birds, fog, and gathering night.
Raining 101
The grapevine waited for spring to finish
Lacquering the hill with emerald paint.
Crucified boughs forgave the storm
Like a saint forgets to forget the covenant
And waits to be forsaken.
Rain slicked the road with fate.
The ambulance pulled out its hair.
The Chinaberry’s fallen petals floated like open palms
In puddles moated by a tire track that sank each small pink ship.
Blackwings pipped the sky and swung through evening’s hem of light.
She lowered her dress.
Fog dripped like steam out of a chute,
Smoking up the vineyard while
Night avalanched and grew.
The surviving record
Issue 40 preserves Smart’s name and the complete poem. Current same-name records do not establish a reliable literary biography for this author, so the page remains focused on the work that can be attributed with confidence.