Contagious Ecstasy of Bravado<\/p>\n
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Have you never heard of King, the musher the winners circle under flashbulbs and feast lights the one who ran King\u2019s team loose, after King, Redeeming the space between his lips and teeth King King re-mounted. Have you to the exact pitch of your voice your <\/p>\n “Contagious Ecstasy of Bravado” is reprinted from\u00a0Gander Press Review <\/em>(Spring 2009)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Carol Levin\u2019s<\/a> full volume, Stunned By the Velocity,<\/em><\/a> appeared 2012 from Pecan Grove Press. Pecan Grove Press also published Carol Levin\u2019s chapbook, Red Rooms and Others<\/em> \u00a0(2009)<\/a>. \u00a0Her chapbook\u00a0Sea Lions Sing Scat<\/em><\/a>\u00a0came out with Finishing Line Press in 2007. \u00a0Her work appears or is forthcoming in The Louisville Review, The New York Quarterly,<\/a> Verse Wisconsin,<\/a> The Massachusetts Review, Third Coast, OVS Magazine,The Pedestal Magazine, Fire On Her Tongue,<\/a> Two Sylvias Press, Raven Chronicles, The Mom Egg<\/em> and many others.\u00a0Levin is an Editorial Assistant for the Crab Creek Review.<\/em><\/a> She teaches the The Breathing Lab \/Alexander Technique,<\/a> in Seattle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Contagious Ecstasy of Bravado Have you never heard of King, the musher up in Nome? Or Salem, his lead dog who fortified the Iditarod team past twenty-four village checkpoints, over two mountain ranges, along the wide Yukon River, up … Continue reading
\nup in Nome? Or Salem,<\/em> his lead dog
\nwho fortified the Iditarod team
\npast twenty-four village checkpoints,
\nover two mountain ranges, along the wide
\nYukon River, up the stretch sliding
\non the iced-in coast of the Bering Sea,
\ndown into town, into<\/p>\n
\nand Northern lights, and the beam
\nof a full moon corona?
\nFront page photo flash of light yellow roses
\nin a garland around his neck. This dog\u2019s<\/p>\n
\non the coldest night
\ntoppled off the sled. He fell into fatigue\u2019s
\ndeep snow, struggling to stand, watching
\nhis rig vanish like a candle guttering in the winter air,
\nhis life and his victory running away.<\/p>\n
\nshrilled across the frozen lay.
\nWho knows what goes through dogs\u2019 minds?
\nSurprisingly Salem acquiesced, turned the team.<\/p>\n
\nnever once broken free helter-skelter hard
\non the lip of oblivion? Have you, thrashed
\nticking off your debts unable
\nto sleep or bellowed
\nalone out loud on the freeway?
\nHave you rehearsed, down<\/p>\n
\ngoodbye but then backed out at a wisp of her cologne?
\nWho knows what goes through your mind turning
\nto your morning toast, folding the newspaper,
\nassuring her–We\u2019ll come out ahead next time<\/p>\n