Poetry
GIRL FINDS SHE IS INCAPABLE OF LOVING IN THE EUCLIDEAN PLANE by VANESSA NIU
Geodesic—the shortest path betweentwo points on a not always straight surfaceif I am not-always-straight and findingthe closest and fastest way to (1) touching a(real live) girl’s shoulder blades and (2) gettingkicked out of the family reunion sometime inthe...
DON DIEGO’S MOONLIGHT WALK by THOMAS PIEKARSKI
As Don Diego walkedalong a haunted moonlit beachthe waves whined and bats swooped. After a few mileshis feet grew quite tiredand a coyote howled from the far pier. He needed a breakbut refused to take one,pressed on through a flock of banshees. With determination...
EIGHT WEEKS by MADEIRA MILLER
The heaviest thing I ever carriedwas raspberry-sized. There wasnothing ceremonious about it; itwas and then it wasn’t. I waseighteen and while I wasn’t readyto be a mother, I certainly wasn’tready to lose the tiny thing thatdwelled within my emaciatedframe. I suppose...
AMORPHIA by X THE MARTIAN
Poetry is knowing many names—few need to be of people. Composition calls on the nomenclature of poetic urgency in asking:“What is most pressing? What of that is here? [Am I...
LINGUISTIC ODDITIES by BEE LB
there is something to waiting for a trap that isn’tcoming. analyzing lilts and usage and tonal discrepanciesfor a word that would consume you. you, i mean me.word, i mean name. he, i mean they. she, i mean they. them, i mean,always theirs. this isn’t a poem so i can’t...
ADAM & EVE by JILLIAN THOMAS
dear god, it’s me. i doubt you will get this letter- i am expecting return to sender, maybe an exasperated postal worker wondering how the hell i expect this to arrive at its destination- and the truth is i don’t- because if you were real you would see me every night...
BLACK LIKE HE. by TAUWAN PATTERSON
Poem I. inspired by and 1st line taken from artist Carrie Mae Weems “Blue Black Boy” for her series Colored People
(1989 – 1990).