CARVING IN BONE: AN ANTHOLOGY OF ORANGE COUNTY POETRY Featuring Hope Alvarado, Brendan Constantine, Mifanwy Kaiser, Michael Kramer, Chelsea Kurnick, Lee Mallory, Mary McIlvaine, Eric Morago, Steve Ramirez, G. Murray Thomas, Shawn Marie Turi, Gabriela Anaya Valdepena Editors: Michael Miller, Ben Trigg "Carving in Bone" is the definitive anthology of the Orange County poetry scene, one of the richest in the United States. Among the authors represented here are Brendan Constantine, a renowned poet and teacher for two decades; Steve Ramirez, co-host of Orange County's most prolific poetry reading; Mifanwy Kaiser, who oversees the poetry nonprofit Tebot Bach; and G. Murray Thomas, editor of the Poetix website that covers literary events across Southern California. It's a diverse group, and the poems in "Carving in Bone" run the gamut of themes -- from surgery to late-night subway rides to four dogs in a submarine painted on a Hollywood pet store wall.

The Jacket of My Brother
by Mifanwy Kaiser

Your jacket hangs
by its hood on the corner
of the dark brown door,

the back of your jacket
limp
in folds.

Someone has
left one sleeve
folded up into itself.

The other,
longer,
touches the wall.

The weight of the buckle
on the bottom of the hood
pulls it into a furrow in the middle of itself,

the neck of the jacket
rising
into the hood --

you, my brother,
hanging
on the dark brown door.