Category: POETRY
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About the Abeyance of Insects; Or Why Judge Judy Keeps Flyswatters on the Bench by Jen Karetnick
About the Abeyance of Insects; Or Why Judge Judy Keeps Flyswatters on the Bench Blame horses. Blame horsetails. Blame horseshit. Blame the spoils of meat and aging produce. Blame landfills. Blame anthrax, cholera, dysentery. Tuberculosis and typhoid. The eggs of parasitic worms, draining the system. Blame the system, the ecosystem, the paleo diet of frogs […]
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Christmas Vomited on Shanghai by Johnathan Cooper
Christmas Vomited on Shanghai Up from the subway into the mall’s tall granite sweep—gold balls dangled above the escalator, sparkly green bunting looped the banisters. Through the dirge of English carols, I found my way outside, fell in with a crowd just disgorged from a city bus—puffy pink neon jackets, hacking coughs. We fast-walked past […]
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Three Poems by Casey Epstein-Gross
The Most Efficient Way to Eat an Orange is to bite right into it, to scarf down the meat and the fleshall in one big gulp and swallow it down whole.cherish the rind and let it scrape against your stomach,sandpaper on skin. a spoonful of sugarmakes the medicine go down, but why not eat the […]
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Three Poems by Matt Schroeder
If this Love is Easy, Leave without telling me & throw out my socks when they grow holes. We’ll move back to the town you grew up in — nearly wiped off the map during the siege yet somehow forgotten in all the war stories — where […]
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In Zadar by easton foxe
In Zadar But it’s not that easy/to knife through my memory/and get rid of you/like burning a photo of us/hugging on Stari Most Bridge/in Mostar/I still hear the mosque bells/still, I smell you/AdriaticLavender/in Zadar In a blue pension by the sea/we laid on our backs/or on each other/From Stari Most Bridge/laughing divers collected coins then […]
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Three Poems by Darren C. Demaree
Emily as I Consider the Explanation I have been accused by Emily of selling her as a freshwater woman while she has forever considered herself an ocean of sorts. I suppose I just needed to explain away why I lap her tide. Too much salt can kill you. I don’t want to be judged for […]
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Two Poems by Yuan Changming
Anagrammed Variations of the American Dream A ram cairned meIn a crammed era [where]Cameramen raid A dire cameraman [or]Arid cameramen [Becoming] A creamed airman [or]A carmine dreamA minced ram ear[a] maniac rearmed As freedom turns into a dorm feeDemocracy to a car comedy, andHuman rights to harming huts Abracadabra This [bread] is no other than […]
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El Norte by G. Timothy Gordon
El Norte They’re not supposed to be this far north over the line, a space between dreams, past shuttered pecan farms, clapboard fraidy holes barred against wind, last green Sinclair DINO filling-station sign, Homeland Security razorwire, Paseo del Norte footbridge, privacy gates and homestead fencing, punched-up in dust and grit among steerage weed and creosote, […]
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Three Poems by Neiha Lasharie
love love love After “This Sky,” a poem from Hafez’s The Gift Hafez said this Sky where we live is no place to lose your wings he never warned against the highwaymen thieves liars old […]
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in re promiscuous owl and black-hearted pussycat by Michael Chang
in re promiscuous owl and black-hearted pussycat you (the bullshit artist) (dam) nice limbs cheekbones for days / ruin my life pls hold i shot my load (can you say that in polite company) papito funhouse mirror to the soul black girls code / don’t write about nature / because one day we won’t have […]
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