Franz Kafka Dreams of Yosemite

Gary Thorp

The Sarcophagid fly has evolved ears on its thorax to help it find singing cicadas. It crawls under the cicada’s wings and lays an egg in the sound-producing organ. In response, the cicada may sing a “protest song” but this seems to have little effect.
–John Muir Laws, The Laws Field Guide to the Sierra Nevada

When one is encroached upon,
one must sing
no matter what the result.

The voice may falter, squeak,
or fail us. Still, we must address
the Sarcophagid fly.

Ignore everything beneath your heart,
but pay simple attention
to what lifts you.

To the evolving ears of the world,
a song of protest, whatever else
it is, is still a song.

Marsha Balian, Jill

Contributors

Many talented individuals are featured in the West Marin Review. Please click below for this volume’s contributors.

  • Cover
    • Marsha Balian   Jill
  • Prose
    • Frances Lefkowitz   Two Very Short Stories
    • Sabine Hoskinson   The Sespe
    • Jon Langdon   Red Rocker
    • Jennifer Kulbeck   Farallon Stories
    • Michael Taylor   Stunts
    • Denise Parsons   The Rancher Whispered
    • Hal Ober   From Old Hatch’s Almanac
    • G. David Miller   I Be Loving My Neighbor’s Wife
    • Chris Reding   Flying
    • Betty Davidson   The Complexity of the Sparrow
    • Robert Kroninger   Japs Not Wanted in Winters
    • Susan Starbird   Commuting in the Valley of Shadows
    • Elisabeth Ptak   Charles Dickens and Ferguson
  • Poetry
    • Tobi Earnheart-Gold   Spring and Boredom
    • Larry Ruth   Light
    • Scott Mossman   The Olives of Olive Drive
    • Roy Mash   La-Z-Boy
    • Heather Altfeld   Indian, Wild (Ishi)
    • Erin Rodoni   Because There Is Loss
    • Jody Farrell   After Wendell Berry’s Window Poems
    • Jed Myers   Close to the Earth
    • Barbara Finkelstein   Return to Sinkyone
    • Jocelyn Mata   ¡Mi día en México!
    • Catlyn Fendler   July 31, A Meditation
    • Gary Thorp   Franz Kafka Dreams of Yosemite
    • Lucas Benjamin   Phenology
    • Kaitlin Deasy   The Letter
    • Sierra Sabec   The Origin of a Piano
    • Elizabeth Herron   As Light Escapes
    • Jan Dederick   Help Me Out, Billy
    • Madeleine S. Butcher   AWESOME
  • Art + Artifact
    • Paola Martin   Canada Goose
    • Leslie Allen   Clear Spring Trough Above the Pacific,Valley Ford and Spaletta Ranch Barns, Valley Ford
    • Elizabeth Sher   Arbres arrencats d’ametles (Uprooted Almond Trees)
    • Mary Siedman   Highway One Trees and Magnolia
    • Eva Bell   Calla Lily
    • Natalie Chavarria, Izabella Guiterrez, and Viviana Villalobos Gonzalez   Sunflowers
    • Eytan Schillinger-Hyman   Serengeti Solitude
    • Peter Connors   Pacific Marine Algae
    • Thomas Wood   Northern Point Reyes Peninsula & Bodega Head
    • Charles Hoehn   West Bay
    • Linda Weyl   Old Barn on “101”
    • Theodore D. Echeverria   Poppies Celebrate the First Rains
    • Charles Eckart   On the Mesa—Point Reyes
    • Bob Kubik   Good Morning
    • Jacqueline Mallegni   Wabi-Sabi Basket
    • Adah Pinchuk Hyman   October Sunset, Tomales Bay
    • Vanessa Waring   Everyone’s Invited
    • Michelle Chayes   Mermaid
    • Terry Murphy   Cat Nap
    • T.C. Moore   Hay Nets
    • Judy Levit   Unanswered Questions
    • Anne Faught   Journal Entry
    • Mary K. Shisler   Turnips… and Onions…
    • Ward Walkup III   summer, fall, winter… SPRING!
    • Jenny Long   Walk
    • Susan Putnam   Untitled #226
    • Isela Carreras   Different
    • Ashley Eva Brock   Shoe Creature
    • Ido Yoshimoto   Untitled from the Series Astral Planes
    • Micheleen Tolson   Cyanotype Leaf
    • Sawyer Rose   Metamorphosis and Costanoa Coral
    • Mark Ropers   Kite at Stinson Beach
  • Music
    • Agnes Wolohan von Burkleo   Lullaby for Seamus