Amy Wright When a Bug Man Loves a Woman Before I fell in love with a bug man, none of my steamiest fantasies would have prompted me to consult the gold swift moth sutra. But, I had also never modified my grandmother’s cornbread recipe to include beetle larvae. “Couples who eat bugs together stay […]
Category: Summer 2018
Emily Brisse – Clean Lines
Emily Brisse Clean Lines There is a moment, when I first open the door of my basement dryer and gather a few corners of clothes into my hands, where I have the urge to bring the fabric to my face, warm and fragrant, and inhale. I used to do this outside, my head reaching […]
Katie M. Flynn – The King of South Phoenix
Katie M. Flynn Katie M. Flynn The King of South Phoenix Transcription of communication from The People’s Choice! Season 12 Contestant South Phoenix[*][†] @King_of_SP! / 7:42am: You must have seen me by now on the television? If the situation were reversed I’d be there every week glued to the screen just to see […]
Shangyang Fang – Tether
Shangyang Fang Shangyang Fang Tether The tea is turning cold.It holds a winter in its mind.Soon, it will be a mattress of dead pool and the beetleswill lather their brittle shellsin this blue bathroom The birds shall continue,sighing, “I’d rather, I’d rather.”I write to make myself un- recognized. Inside the sterilizedwindow, the sprucestays, magpies, erased. […]
Joe Betz – Red-Winged Blackbird
Joe Betz Red-Winged Blackbird On corn tassels, dew. On our jeans, dew.From his lips a boy wipes sweat thickas pickling salt. Today no one is resting,not even the sun high and burning likea cross in misanthropic minds. On the radio,love. On our minds, love. In the fieldwe’re slipping wet hands in corn until wewalk […]
Jess Williard – The Spoils
Jess Williard Jess Williard The Spoils Winter in Wisconsin. Snowdrifts like the shouldersof ancient and unspeaking creatures. A child wanders among them, in love with the possibility of it all.How the spoils are immense when there’s nothing to measure against. After a slap-boxing matchwith his brother, he chases him deeper into the woods. […]
Allison Donohue – Two Poems
Allison Donohue All Night I’ve Been Hearing Them Softly Begin They sound, at first, like far though fearful drumming,Stamping the frosted ground.They sway against the gate, a quiet rest, and then begin With the force of a herd, though it is only a few of them.The cows, moan after tired moan,Calling. I had forgotten […]
Jason Gray – Two Poems
Jason Gray Ark & Aria The seeds docked with a shipAnd now a forest floats in the harbor.This is the outpost in waitFor us to disappear. The ghosts of thylacinesCome out at night to tasteA little humidityIn the air of the bay. Across the water, a ladyDescends a musical scale—it is over—Like bringing […]
Jeevika Verma – Compost
Jeevika Verma Compost In my greenhouse, a nest restsin a pit so warm, blooded, off-balance,it is on one side follicular waste, and onthe other, egg shells for twenty-one days.These same shells make a turtle. She is soft underbelly. Coldand blooded above bone. She buildsillusions in lumps and floods the stone.At midday, she is at […]
Joe Sacksteder – Three Little Critically-Endangered Birds
Joe Sacksteder Three Little Critically-Endangered Birds Old Park Service sign on the wall,Centennial Valley, Montana:THINK BEFORE YOU SHOOT!ONLY 211 TRUMPETER SWANS ALIVEIN THE UNITED STATES TODAY. DON’T SHOOT ANY ALL-WHITE BIRD. Illustration of one taking flight,whumpf of wings up and away from this worldso adequate for so long,then so suddenly hostile, exterminatory,winging towards mysterioso […]
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