The 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…

Chicken 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…

Dallas 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…

Asphodels, 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…

Pornographic Poetry Template Daniel Edward Moore __________ My professor said I might be the first to be consumed by delicious verbs layered between leather syntax and inches of cream before it melts down tall hard peaks beneath a dark hairy sky.  But what if I’m just a studly nerd asking a pronoun…

Ricardo Moran __________ What I’m Thinking on October 25, 1986 Someone said they saw Sigmund the Sea Monster waddlingon Imperial Avenue just over the railroad tracksnear the Winchell’s Donut House.Janet Jackson’s “Nasty” bumping on the Mighty 690,but it was just prima chasing the paleterodressed like a mermaid for Halloween. And…

August Helpling __________ Family Name Glinting with sweat and glitter from the club dance floor,a friend sits across from me at the diner and says,I’m nonbinary, but I don’t think I can call myself trans,it feels like I haven’t earned it. How I delightthen to tell the tale of the…

Gage 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…

Joe Bishop __________ Vacancy This grand hotel has lost its headand the maids march on strike  for hazard paycircling parking-lot  sinkholes Anarchy overthrew  the maître d’Light & Power  cut lights and powerThe star rating  slips by the hourBaroque wallpaper  peels like stage makeup Chef pisses  in the soup du jourHis duck a…

Dustin Brookshire __________ Drifting Villanelle a collaborative, contoured villanelle using W.H. Auden’s “If I Could Tell You”,written with Joshua Barnes Tomorrow is Monday. Say it ain’t so!But there are, unfortunately, bills to payand so much in this world that I don’t know.  I could tell you; instead, let me showhow…