A Big Red Island Christine H. Chen __________ Behind the carved mahogany table Tang tai-tai the matchmaker scanned the girl up and down before telling her to sit with a tone that cut short any form of protest. Tang tai-tai squinted behind her thick tortoise shell glasses as if to…
Read MoreIn the Strawberry Mountains Sam Olson __________ Grandmother, I know you don’t read the newsany longer, but in case you heard, it’s true–they want to send 30,000 peopleto a camp called Gitmo. Campingis what we did come June. I was a camper,once, then a counselor. Find a holeon a creek?…
Read MoreLogical Preposition A. J. Bermudez __________ I am often apologizing to my international students.Why, they want to know, are we in a classroom, at a university, on a campus?Why in a chair, at a desk, on the board? What is it to be near / below / beyond / apart…
Read MoreFoods of All Nations Shalmi Barman __________ November 6th, 2024 I never feel so expertly from hereas in the dairy aisle at 8 AM,pajama-clad, insouciantly unwashed,comparing flavored yogurts. Empires fallupon the price of eggs while we delay,exchanging greetings by the sourdoughas neighbors should. And have you heard the news?The soup…
Read MoreCabin Fever*** Edward Baranosky __________ 1In a snowstorm the last certaintiesDisappear, clinging to the pale moonrise, The edges of fir, spruce, and birchBlending with the lost horizon– The mackerel sky closes in,Where imagination is your only confidante And dreams have found your epitaph,The petrified light in winter silence. 2You found…
Read MoreNormal Makena Metz __________ Everything returns to stasisin time. Life goes on, the sun risesand falls, and I am lostin a sea of normal. Eat dinner, go to sleep, wake up, walk the dog.Normal is uncomfortable, unnatural.After everything- I don’t want tohave to go on. No one told me that…
Read MoreCaravaggio’s Shadow Colette Tennant __________ From the first day he noticed it,it became his only friend— dark to dark, shoulder bladesleaning away from the sun elbowing their way throughsharp angles of light their silhouettes clarifiedby colors around them both adept at holding handswith the night. __________ Colette Tennant has three…
Read MoreThe World Is Like That Too, The Journey Begins—Again, & Sorrow’s Kitchen Diane Gottlieb __________ The World Is Like That Too for Matthew I read a poem that said the world was there to fuck us.It was a sad poem, an angry poem. A poem of loss and longing and…
Read MoreExposure Roger Camp __________ Morningbirds slicethe rain-splashedwings a window openson my bedmy hand slidesover the slicksill dripping sheet selecting a panestripped of its dustI witness an execution the trees undressedraked with hailthe wallsleaf splattered the room darkensI can not readmy watch ticksno comfort in its sound the stormsilences the streetunmans…
Read MoreIn the Temple Shadows Maudie Bryant __________ Like wheat in autumn,Beauty glows golden,its fleeting, gilded lieschipping like glassscattered along some beachno one dares to walk. I’ve shed that sorry skin—eyes cradled in longing, achingto see themselves mirrored,just to know how they feel.Now I’m all bone and stone,a hard heart pulsing,silent…
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