Article Z: Letter to Dad | a double abecedarian Zebulon Huset __________ Article Z: beware the easy. Chest ≈ thorax. Defend the (breast) plate like Harmon Kilibrew. Eventually Pavlovfinds his own saliva for a tiramisu— ghost flickers each whisper of dessert. Harmon, batting lefty, nervous. I (innocently) disregarded yourjovial spirit kindness (even…
Read MoreSophia M. Giudici __________ Tattoos Some of us grow upTo make our bodies coloring books—Stories marking warm skin. __________ Playing Dress Up Why are children the only ones allowedto dress up in every color of their dreams?They come outside on Saturday morningsstill vested in the vestiges of sleepTrain pajamas topped…
Read MoreAlicia Cook __________ The Widow in the Window The Widow in the window watchedthe sea-town home across the streetlose its weather-torn For Sale sign. Moving vans curbed and unloaded innocuousclues like a beige couch and an upright piano. The Widow in the window watchedas newlyweds crossed the threshold.She remembered her…
Read MorePaula Cisewski __________ Red Poem In the fenced tennis courts, a woman rollerdiscos solo, weaving between green nets on fuchsiaskates. Meanwhile, an upside-down flag hangsfrom one bungalow and an upside-right flag hangs from the next. This neighborhood we call our own.I’m home slicing radishes into a bowlwhich is a version…
Read Morenight driving, ’89 Danielle McMahon __________ we drive southin a silver and rusttoyota pick-upto meet the blue-brown tide & fizzling foamof the atlantic, ourpale yellow headlightsscrape milesthrough the summer’s night the engine drones onan otherwise emptyhighway, through flat-lands of rows of dark pine and tobacco windows down,stray hairs whipfrantic at my face, freckledwith tingling stars…
Read MoreSummer Camp Josh Lefkowitz __________ The sound of gravel beneath our feet.A forest scent of pine and rain.Every day its own canteen,filled to the brim with activity.Portaging a red canoe.Dipping grilled cheese into tomato soup.Tie-dying t-shirts for the talent show.Getting better at tetherball.Wondering if she likes you back.Running to avoid…
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Read MoreOde to the tween summers of the late 1970s Kaila Schwartz __________ the smells of Coppertoneand calamine lotion squeezing lemon juiceon our hair to see ifwe could make natural highlights rushing to get coolby freezing our tonguesthe twin popsicles meltingonto our sticky fingersfrom the rush and the heat the goal…
Read MoreBra Lola Willis __________ I turn the remains in my grieving fingers, black satin thinning, dotted by tiny specks of pink lint. He outlived the pronouns you tossed into the mouth of the beast along with the last scratches of your identity: Army-green jacket, bruised guitar, scarf paint-stained, broken phone—what…
Read MoreQueer Pursuits, Lights the Moon to Spite the Sun, & Mood 48 Is A Gay One Bradley David Waters __________ Queer Pursuits You know that grumbling truck The one with scowling headlights and cow-catcher grill You’ll never catch me I say Pinned in its radiator …
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