Thin Air Magazine

Lands Shift and So Should Poems: An Interview with Jake Skeets

September 20, 2018

By Margarita Cruz Jake Skeets (Diné) is from the Navajo Nation. He received an MFA at the Institute of American Indian Arts. His work has appeared in Word Riot, Connotation Press, The Blueshift Journal, and elsewhere, and he recently founded Cloudthroat, an online publication of Indigenous art and poetics. He is the winner of the 2018 … More Lands Shift and So Should Poems: An Interview with Jake Skeets

Three Poems by Savannah Slone

September 12, 2018

Field Notes on Becoming Yourself pluck fallopian foxgloves from your diseased roots egg trek cardiac harvest wear insects as rings, arthropod legs caging each digit around your neck, trilobites rusty toenails scratch off achilles blisters stack blocks with your beet stained gums pick suckers from your armpits swallow them whole: deer ticks, your aphrodisiac palpitate your inner … More Three Poems by Savannah Slone

Three Poems by Jenny Liu

August 10, 2018

white picket fences alternatively unstrangers 1. it was the way his wrinkled old hands trembled over the picture of his kids in his wallet. made me wonder how many battles he fought with the bill and the bottle. to go home to a car and a fence and to kiss his beautiful wife with tainted … More Three Poems by Jenny Liu

An Excerpt from “Medium Warp,” by Mike Oliphant, our 2018 Gas Station Winner

August 5, 2018

Conditional Ascension in JavaScript if (condition1) { block of code to be executed if condition1 is true } else if (condition2) { block of code to be executed if the condition1 is false and condition2 is true } else { block of code to be executed if the condition1 is false and condition2 is false … More An Excerpt from “Medium Warp,” by Mike Oliphant, our 2018 Gas Station Winner

Worry Bone, by Hans Hetrick

June 25, 2018

Worry Bone Always shaking my tree Always rattling my bones Stirs up the natives tending my temple grooming my home They get no peace They never feel at home Worry bone preaches doom on every street He’s a guest on every show Thinks God burnt trifles into stone Swears disaster lurks ravenous behind every promising … More Worry Bone, by Hans Hetrick

Three poems by Jon Pierce

March 15, 2018

1 of 0 if you read this as if you read this as if you read this as if you read this as if you read this as if you read this as Doom Abaca, dead; a cab, a decade fagged, a hijacked lima bean, an opal ‘q,’ ransomed; a strumpet, and … More Three poems by Jon Pierce

Dear Watcher, by Jenn Powers

March 2, 2018

Dear Watcher, 1 Be calm. Categorize by level of threat. File by style. A red jagged letter needles my skin. Tell myself this is a joke. Linger in the hallway after school. Back pressed against the lockers. Look left. Look right. Wait for the invisible man who hides like sin and speaks like fire. Why … More Dear Watcher, by Jenn Powers

Two Poems by Genevieve DeGuzman

February 12, 2018

Boats She stands at the edge of the dock thinking to set off for anywhere even the redeye of the storm. But the boat drifts dragging a net of obligations, heavy barnacle gowns clanking a train behind her. Because the question is always … More Two Poems by Genevieve DeGuzman

Guns Are People, Too, by C.J. Miles

December 5, 2017

People have been dying since people were people. I’m buying a lottery ticket so I can afford to take every assault rifle off the market, drop them into the middle of the Atlantic. Imagine an octopus at a shooting range: goddamn goddamn goddamn goddamn goddamn goddamn goddamn. Goddamn. Everyone who dies while someone is writing … More Guns Are People, Too, by C.J. Miles

Star Scatters by Laura Pastorino

November 28, 2017

I saw someone nail the moon into the pavement in Northwood last night. They ripped the plywood off and splattered constellations no one had ever heard of. Watched as the stars and the carpenters went shifting, writhing, dancing on top of black waves. They cluster into the nails, spiraling away, winking as they sink into … More Star Scatters by Laura Pastorino