Matthew E. Henry an open letter to my well-intentioned white educators: past, present, and future thank you for always seeing me as one of the good ones— a safe bet for your efforts. a burden worth lifting. your attempts to connect and encourage—like the educators whose movies were mocked in the faculty lounge—didn’t […]
Category: Summer 2020 – Poetry
Robert Carr
Robert Carr I’m Reminded of What I’ve Forgotten Squirrels scatter nut chunks From the giant hickory tree above the drive. Walking the dog, you remind me Of little things I’ve failed to do. I hold a braided lead. You slip on bitter shell. Could you sweep this up? you ask, Have asked for […]
Jeremy Rock – “Transcontinental”
Jeremy Rock Transcontinental And I know you are out there, tasting acacia gum and starch, fifth in line at your local Postal trying to speak with cardboard a cipher so elaborate it cannot fit in a phone line. You are packing used underwear, a non-rewritable disc labeled for when I can’t (be […]
Jennifer Met – Two Poems
Jennifer Met Stranger on a Nude Beach —On Woman Combing Her Hair (Alexander Archipenko 1915) Breaking, water on skin bells to the wind—fresh water pearls breaking, clattering to the floor. Now gloss bronze, wet sand sticking, she breezes comb from tote. Tosses it across, knock-kneed. But here her arm frosts over, in love […]
Jeffrey Perkins
Jeffrey Perkins The Way Things Are Now Find us in the crooked trees above the wide river. A horse, a wolf, a lion without kids. Forget what you once knew. We’re nothing but charades with new mouths. We destroy what we touch dancing on tiny stages, falling into crowds coming down. […]
G. J. Sanford
G. J. Sanford What I Don’t Know (About My Mother) I don’t know if she liked meat— blackened, or the blood of medium-rare. I don’t know how she felt about avocados, whether she revered them as I do or reeled from the reek of them. I don’t know her favorite animal, […]
Geoff Anderson
Geoff Anderson Self-Preservation God loves the hungry more than the full. —Kaveh Akbar I have not harmed my body as much as other bodies have harmed themselves. Around the Easter table, Merlot-dark tongues whet tar teeth. Pairs of lungs soak in ash. The stench of tobacco leaves my hair a filthy sponge of […]
Crystal Ellefsen
Crystal Ellefsen When my magic runs dry Pale yellow liquid drips around her tiny perfect lips— I barely feel the suction anymore. Have my nipples numbed? I don’t know. My body knows what she needs even when my mind starts counting the minutes until I can have a break, create some space around me. […]
Corey Zeller – “Vows”
Corey Zeller Vows Not a plain ring, but the way you hold your hand on your lap when you sit beside me in the park, palm up, your body pointed toward mine like a needle ready to pour through a seam. Not mornings, together, drinking coffee at a well-worn table but rides alone to […]
Brad Kavo – “Tin Can Man”
Brad Kavo Tin Can Man Sounds of urgency travel upstairs although they whisper, heads huddled close by, like mice, so small, set deep within their nest, safe from giant shovels, probably. My breathing slows to stillness as I wait for crinkling pillow fibers to quiet so I can imagine my hearing grow longer, […]
