Dorsey Craft Cheval de Frise Miles Brewton House, Charleston SC These soft-spoken spikes, a century dull,baked black in sun of this peninsula,remember themselves body-ready, sharpto burst between thin bones of a palm, slickto red with the rich energy of veins.Forged to cage wilted azalea, paint crackedover wood, wrought to be the inky ribsto […]
Category: Winter 2017 – Poetry
“Homunculi” – Lyrik Courtney
Lyrik Courtney Homunculi and what of the men living ruinous and discardedcadavering their gaunt bodies […]
“Specters,” “When All We Did Was Glitter” – Kate Gaskin
Kate Gaskin Specters You don’t speakmuch. There’s drinkfor that. A porch to slick with chickenblood, a rabbit’sfoot, anything to fold back the night’seyelids, pin themlike moth wings to the purple lightof morning. Each daythe same milk-warm gestures. You knockthe dreams downfrom the corners. Air out the specters.Chase off the batwingfelt of sleep. […]
Read More… from “Specters,” “When All We Did Was Glitter” – Kate Gaskin
“Slow Testament,” “Wolf” – John Andrews
John Andrews Slow Testament June, 26th 2015 How cliché to say Cicada song and mean White Riverwhere summer air breatheslike roux, every note echoes off Jon boats. I want to say your namelike it’s mine, familiar and bitteras chicory, no toothbrush canbrush out, carry the taste likesecret in my mouth all day. Say honey and […]
“Codeswitch Decomposing into Lil Wayne Lyric,” “Like Everything Else, Love Begins in Hennessy,” “Biracial Boy Reps His Blood” – Julian Randall
Julian Randall Codeswitch Decomposing into Lil Wayne Lyric After Danez Smith Lord Please Forgive Me for My Brash Delivery A face is for other people’s benefit, a brochure gospel undone by a mouth. I am the most marketable sin since 2004. A smile that yields only bones, a mouth slick with restraint. I am […]
“The Engagement Ring, from the Junk Drawer” – Catie Marie Martin
Catie Marie Martin The Engagement Ring, from the Junk Drawer The dovetail joints are not strong enough to seal me from the scent of coffee in the morning, or the roar of the vacuum in the afternoon. I, an inmate among oddities; I, the handcuff of commitment. O, pair of scissors! O, spool […]
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“My Mother Cleans Our Ears” – Paige Sullivan
Paige Sullivan My Mother Cleans Our Ears After the bath water turned lukewarm we’d approach the altar of her knees, drying and shivering to goose-flesh. A towel resting across her thighs, we’d kneel, turn our faces sideways to stare at the toilet paper or tub edge, her hand holding the center of the swab, —never mind the horror stories of pierced ear drums, sudden deafness— swiping outer ear, inner canal with the white tip, wanting us […]
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“Mist Burial” – Brian Sneeden
Brian Sneeden Mist Burial I bury you in the heron’s eye. Who will tell me when the birds come again to Patmos,singing the song of bitter lemonsover the water. Or when a fishermanpulls up some statue from the harborcaught in his net— […]
“PB & J,” “Before the Games Begin,” “Sewn” – Amelia Martens
Amelia Martens PB & J The little girl and the bear are making sandwiches. Peanut butter and jellyfish, because the coral reefs are dying. Even Daryl Hannah is being replaced by a man, and women in Japan still buy skin bleach. Please god, they write on paper towels as the bear wraps their […]
Read More… from “PB & J,” “Before the Games Begin,” “Sewn” – Amelia Martens
“Unilateral Salpingo-Oopherectomy” – Jessica Siobhan Frank
Jessica Siobhan Frank Unilateral Salpingo-Oopherectomy In the beginning there was Heaven and Earth. Three incisions from an exploratory mission,camera and light recording the science of creation.Circadian rhythms in an all-day drum circle of yawns.An outlier molecule of water in a dried riverbed—pearl in the oyster of an ovary, tweezed and seized,studied like a […]
Read More… from “Unilateral Salpingo-Oopherectomy” – Jessica Siobhan Frank
