thank you by Najya Williams To a body long forgotten. To a body long stretched plucked pulled. To a body long abandoned. To a body never forgiven. To a body often criticized. To a body discarded. To a body thick like molasses. To a body...
Against Melancholy by Nathan McClain At first it is Beethoven’s Ninth I’m thinking of— not all of it—mostly the fourth movement, that rousing crescendo you might hear at the end of a movie where the protagonist has graduated or overcome some great hurdle, cello,...
Completely Dishonest by Cliff Notez To live in this skin,When being completely dishonest with the worldDo not tell them how you snore like lightning Tell them that you are only 5’9’’Tell them you hate to read Do not tell them that you are...
Only by Danielle Legros Georges Nature hides the most beautiful design: the norm, the anomaly, the rare, the rarest, which is to say, the only, and aren’t weeach, twins even, only? “Only” from The Dear Remote Neamess of You. Copyright 2016 by Danielle Legros Georges....
Autumn Leaves by Tim Hall To live in this skin,Is to fear breathing,Is to have no control of breathing,Is to walk around with two puffs left in my inhaler,hesitant to use it,worried that I won't be able to breath someday. To live in this skin,Is to scream...
I am From the Church of Human Hands by Sarah Dickenson Snyder the Hands that tighten the lug bolts on rotated tires, the Hands that picked the hen-of-the woods (and not death caps) I buy to make wild mushroom soup, the hundreds of steady Hands clasping...
A Tarot Reading (5 of Cups) by Hannah Wagner The cups hang above me andthe wine drizzles down the sides of my mouth. I let dreams by Fleetwood Mac play on repeat. 5 was always my lucky numbersays every fortune cookie I never ate. I am alone in the kitchenat...
Bad News, Again by Cameron Awkward-Rich after the June 2015 Charleston AME church shootingafter Mary Oliver There are so many reasons to stay inside, to lock the room around my heart. I don’t even like it. My heart. Bitter little fruit. Little lead stone, carnation...
a flor de piel (blooming on my skin) by María José Giménez blooming on my skinbloodied fieldsof unbloomed childrenblooming on my skinwilted traintracksof weeping eldersblooming on my skintu país, mi paísblooming on my skina nation builtby blistered handsblooming on my...
Rereading Tranströmer in a Pandemic by Steven Cramer I’ve seen next to no one.My street, which I’ve namedThe Busiest in the Known Cosmos,I could lay my body down on. Nobody’s sick, goes the newsfrom Antarctica, where snowpetrels, to repel predators, spewstomach oils...
Chloe says the earth wants to grow things by Claudia Wilson We spend somuch timestanding on theground,but we nevertouch it She says thiswhile giving meseeds and atomato plant We pick a spotmy fingerstouch the earth. It’s drylike my belief...
Poetry by Jennifer Jean Sometimes a poem says it first. Says: “The Pacific Coast boardwalk cyclists will pedal, churn, chargemobile carbon collectors! Stuck above a back tire!Will vacuum & compress breathable particulates! Till, each cycler has...
If I must wear a mask by Deborah Leipziger Let it be a mask of flowersViolets and magnoliaPansies, buds of allkinds, wrapped around my earscovering my lipsLet me smile in irisFlower the first syllable Previously published in Amethyst Review (June 2020)....
Imagine the Angels of Bread by Martín Espada This is the year that squatters evict landlords, gazing like admirals from the rail of the roofdeck or levitating hands in praise of steam in the shower; this is the year that shawled refugees deport judges, who stare at...
Taking Stock by Jennifer Garfield We’ve stocked the pantry with tomato sauce,broth, chickpea pasta for protein. The fridge casts her blue halo upon crowns of broccoli,cottage cheese, a dozen lemons. Toilet paper soldiered in the basement. Clean underweartucked into...
Attention is Prayer, Curative by Jenny Grassl burn cinnamon your remorse I will attend your systole and flu favor speckle for heart take foxglove burden in its tonic please don’t die I do beseech you beloved and strange bowed with soft shoulders of penitence charcoal...
Ledger of Doubts, Unmasked by Amanda Grace Shu At CVS, a woman toes the tape linemarking a safe six feet from where I stand.She stares at me slantwise, suspicious,and turns away when I meet her gaze. Mom chats with the grocery checkout girl,thanking her for her...
Bref Double Written for Central Park During the Pandemic by Jenna Le Magnolias, long-fingered like a thief,their knuckles purple fading to pale pinktoward their fingertips, reach out to stirthe robin’s-egg-blue basin of the sky, to swirl their fingers lazily...
Love in the Time of Corona by Charles Coe (with apologies to Gabriel García Márquez) In ancient Greece, men shook handsas a demonstration of good faithto show they weren’t armed. In these days of fever and fearwe keep our distance, resistthe timeless call of flesh to...
torrin a. greathouse’s “Abecedarian Requiring Further Examination Before a Diagnosis Can be Determined” May 27, 2020 Abecedarian Requiring Further Examination Before a Diagnosis Can be Determinedby torrin a. greathouse after Natalie Diaz Antonym for me a medicalbook....
The God Structure by Chloe Martinez "It has a god structure. I think it will resist a long time.” —customer review of the Uniqlo Beauty Light bra, $19.99 O keep me up, keep me going. Keep it together. Smooth me. Reduceexcess movement....