Audacity Shelly Rodrigue __________ I don’t want to talk about the woman in Walmart who asks me to pray with herafter she admits to stalkingmy wife and I through the aislessimply because two women in loveshopping for groceries somehowrequires divine intervention at the behest of a stranger Instead, I want to talk about the…
Read MoreMarianne Alanie Lacy __________ Inspired by the painting “Marianne” by Karl Hubbuch My mornings are often dark when they needn’t be. I’ve never been a morning person. I sleep through alarms and grumble through breakfast. But today, today is different. Today, my morning is golden. A rich, orange-toned golden that…
Read MoreThe Collar Holds Topher Shields __________ In the kitchenabove the K’ Road dairy,I sew the small flagto your denim jacketwith thread I’ve pulledfrom my own cuff,three stitches throughthe frayed collar,the needle flashing onceunder the bulblike a matchstruck in a dark room. Your shoulder carrieslast night’s rainand the cheap pomadewe split…
Read MoreThe Rubik’s Cube Eleanor Levine __________ My sister Adelaide got me a Rubik’s Cube for Hanukkah. Every year she and her wife get me whatever is on sale at Aldi. One year it was three bags of coffee that I threw out, though I could have taken them to my…
Read MoreChicken Fight S.K. Taggart __________ I wrote this with footballon in the other room,a masculinity I have forgottenthe rules to no longer does it serveme to pretend to be that boyin football padson a sepia fall afternoonthrowing my body againstother, more committed boys I think you understand mein this, and…
Read MoreWaving, Not Drowning David Lohrey __________ The very thought of throwing myself overboard made me recoil. There were Conrad and Melville, of course, maybe Golding. No other major writer of fiction who’d spent much time at sea came to mind. The watery writers didn’t much appeal. Eugene O’Neill was the…
Read MoreDallas Raquel Klein __________ Queer Lineage Ashes, Stardust Look at Us Crawling Out the Mud Dust, dust pecked the open Gorge like motherkissing your splintered feet. Like you were playingtoo hard, and the dry grass laughed thistlesinto your soles. You cried out, but she liftedyou into her arms. You were…
Read MoreRakpabon (รักษ์ป่าบอน) Ashley Mangtani __________ I do not know them, and they do not know me. The men in the brown trucks call me by a name a clerk typed onto a card. Jeab Rakpabon (เจี๊ยบ รักษ์ป่าบอน) Printed on me like a warning. I am the Protector of Pa Bon…
Read MoreAsphodels, How I’d Like To Be Buried With Them Corinne Klosinski __________ Within the wan and weeping vale Where twilight tarnishes the day,There trembles one tenebrous bloom: The asphodel of unanswered ache. Pale as a patient phantom’s palm, It lifts its languid, lilting throat,Drinking the dim and distant dew Of mercies never meant for…
Read MoreGage Baldwin __________ Invisible Countries Words don’t live long outside the body,Not most of them, anyway. I can tell who is family By the tension behind their teeth The hesitance in their step Like a sinner sneaking back Amongst the gods. Do not believeTheir honeyed Words, let them hang In the air and die. We…
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