Even the Rocks Turn Away When We Look at Them R Rice __________ She wakes to find herself                far from home, from family, the tent sweltering                under glass-hard sky. Those stirring                around her, all of them, on their way,                they hope, somewhere else. For a moment                she’s still, lost in the moving of her body’s                own…

Road Song Jed Myers __________ I’ve ground my teeth to an aching, jawsore from a long clench while I searchedfor a road out of a war, no knowing which side I was on. And I dreamed a crossing—safe               passage, no gate, no screamed inquisitions at gunpoint between wired-off halves of land— not…

Mary McColley __________ Ajnabia I am remembering the open skies of August, how I lay at nightwatching a city creep with light, how I lostmyself in the arched stone halls of necklaces, spices, lambs’ heads how I felt so small, that I could hide between the ridges of datesHow my…

Isra Hassan __________ A Ballad for Those Playing Dead dangerous mezzanineshoney spilt suddenlieshouse of sand practiceWestern exit strategiesgrim blessed reapera viral hum operathieving empirea repear’s balladan obscene drought __________ Star Light, Star Bright circa March 2025, SpaceX Rocket Explodes Is the satellite’s rawmaterials happyto be returning?Did the satellite’s rawmaterials missthe…

Exiles A. Z. Foreman __________ Through dusk’s torn veil, where borders bleed to none,A thousand shadows shuffle, lose their names.The road is ash, the sky a loaded gun,Its stars reciting grief in silent claims.No gate holds fast, no wall can bar the weightOf feet that drag the heart through mud…