Onset Gender Dysphoria Meets Quarter Life Crisis Talon Drake __________ I am twenty-six / and sometimes forget / I no longer have to fear the girls on thebasketball team / who hurled out slurs from their seats / in fact they would fear me / my burlyphysique / but there’s…
Read MoreWe Gathered Them by Hand Awen Fenwick __________ We came up from the subway.Color hit the eyes. The Mall disappeared under thousands of panels.Names snapped in the wind. Some held photographs.Some were weighted downwith stuffed animals. Some werea name,two dates. I was nineteen,my first flagstill pinnedto my backpack.Those I had…
Read MoreAt the District Hotel Jay Paine __________ We upgraded to the theme, the expectation: superheroes, sex swings, so when the door swung open we were less than thrilled, our room a less-than-private locker room fantasy. Nine helmets lined the bench. It’s dangerous to smash past all four bases all at once but we…
Read MoreDuplex for T-Boy Sex Cory Quinn __________ -after Jericho Brown In bed, I am neither man nor woman; I am bodied, bottom growth in lacegroaning against a bottom, laced-up body and a bed frame, holding you tenderly.Like a bed frame, I hold you tenderly not tentative. You taste sweet like…
Read MoreAudacity Shelly Rodrigue __________ I don’t want to talk about the woman in Walmart who asks me to pray with herafter she admits to stalkingmy wife and I through the aislessimply because two women in loveshopping for groceries somehowrequires divine intervention at the behest of a stranger Instead, I want to talk about the…
Read MoreMissy’s Animal Rescue Bryn Gribben __________ Missy herself sits behind the desk, loggingadoptions, barely looks up from the screen.“You can just open up the cageand pet them, if you want.” Frowsy-haired, her giant breasts are wet from doing flea dips, “forty done already—twenty left to go.” Grimy with the musk of…
Read MoreWordy Bird Emerald Fox __________ If you were a bird,Settled in perfect, pompous-Bring me a few things that I would need-We shall have tea in the morning-As we chat over business-Graven imagereading the Morning Brew with-Nothing but manners and refinement, Could instill-If you are going to be ill-tempered, take it to…
Read MoreBirdfeeding Tyler Robert Sheldon __________ after T.R. Hummer When it’s time, you haul the huge bagof birdseed from the cargo holdof your SUV and muscle it overto the new feeder, which waitsfor filling, and lift the lid and pour,the cracked black seeds spinningdeep into the heart of the cylinder,the light…
Read MoreJennifer Sepso __________ Oliver Mid-stride, he collapses— not fallen,just hungry.As dramatic asa high school productionof Romeo and Juliet.Spine long as breath, he stretches until the room pauses in respect.Deliberately he yawns: a flare of pink, a carnivorouscathedral of teeth. Then trots off, tail held high— a banner, not a question.Tucks…
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