Liberation Will Come & Euphoria Icarus Olsen __________ Liberation Will Come Yet, it will be felt firstIn a dimly-lit dingy bar mens bathroom,behind a stall doorPaint chipping off, hinges barely hanging onSmell of spilled beer and piss attacks your noseFor a good time call…. In sloppy red half-wiped off sharpieOn…

Farmland Craig Cotter __________ We’d leave the backyard of my parents’ housefor the farmer’s land.Walk into the woods he left untoucheddown to a river.A small, slow-moving river— maybe more a creek— say 8 feet across and that late summer day2 feet deep. We’d cross the water,my tennis shoesyour work boots…

Trans Substantiation, Hypertrophy, & Lunacy Adrian Costello __________ Trans Substantiation You say God does not make mistakes.So what if the mistake is yours?Mistaking form for function, insistingon immutability as impermanence unfoldsbefore us all. What if God wants thistransformation, not just mine, not justthe miracle of becoming–truly–inthis body with a kind…

Climax is the Closest Thing to Surrender, fermentation, & daydreaming in Starbucks that my husband is Queer Britt Bustos __________ Climax is the Closest Thing to Surrender Based on Ocean Vuong’s “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous” come together             for we are hungry and giving of what i wish to not…

Versatile Villanelle & Sizzling Villanelle Dustin Brookshire __________ Versatile Villanelle Topping is not for the grieving, for those who need to be filled up and forget their own emptiness. – Joseph Osmundson, “Double or Nothing” Topping isn’t for those in the midst of grief.Don’t have a pity party and sit…

Ricegay Joefel Bolo __________ So my parents are farmers. They carry the rice, roughly as producer, then us who consume. Seeing, to feel the dirt talking. Notice and virgin, rice husk, extract the rice from its golden shell and itchiness. I consumed cups, or in another strange distance, a scope…

I Stop Trusting Saint Anthony When, Prayer for Another Hurricane Season from Afar, & Here Come the Girls Stacey Balkun __________ I Stop Trusting Saint Antony When a wave knocks your dad’s Ray Bansinto the surf and they never resurface despite our haphazard prayers.I steeple my sunburned hands around a…

There Were Signs Jazmine Becerra Green __________ There Were Signs I. I went out to dinnerwith a guy once. Justdinner and check, noother plans. He droveme toward my singleapartment, ticking offthings we could do topostpone goodnight. Itold him the HomeDepot on Sunset wasopen late. I imaginedpulling paint chips inRed Willow,…