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I Let Go
by Sheree La Puma Wings. Crowns. Throats. Bills, plunged deep into blackoil sunflower/seeds. There are a few peanut halvesthrown in for bulk but the songbirds don’t like them.I watch them bite & flick. A mourning warbler twistshis nape, calls to me in a dream/frozen like the remainsof a child found buried in a shallow grave.…
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I Know My Wedding Day Will Be a Coronation & Funeral Too
by Golden for Golden I command the procession as any southern Black widow would—coal laced, fangs erect, red velvet rippling underneath my abdomen sealike. Each bridesmaid, the kin in Kevlar suits & the poplars in patent heels, leads the hem of my gown down the aisle in their teeth. Cam carries me on his back, on his hip, like any father without…
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To Dance With My Father
by Golden for Tilden Avery Golden boy untitled. stomach splitter. my son. I forgotmy dreams. when you were born I filled you inthe blank everyday. oxygen & ink. my back spasms from all I seed.I carry my clots home to your mom. I would live there if I couldafford our freedom. my first brother knows…
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Postpartum April
by Anna Meister baby fights throughpainful growth newunderstanding worldexpanding like a capsule-turned-foam-horse-in-wateragain he settleson a sleepless weo so symbiotico wonder week shushed but not savedin the blue-black roomwe relocatei picture my eyes scooped outwith a melon ballerthe thought comforts me now halfway throughmy hours i teeterjust this side of dangerouscould never say aloudall of what the brain…
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Drought
by Jane Morton There was the time I drove the car into the creek.And then the time I was the creek and almostdrowned. There was a year that turned the creek tostone. It wound its way through woods that aren’tquite woods. Trees too pale and nervous to be trees,and grass that reached up taller than …
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My Therapist Asks Why I Think I Didn’t Deserve the Assault
by Anthony Aguero Night breezes seem to whisper, “I love you”There is a soft kiss that is easily mistaken for a whisper and the night dragging along like abody in the middle of some desert I no longer belong to. Dream a little dream of meI no longer belong to. I shut my eyes and sharp blades of…
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Instinctual
by Will McMillan I didn’t know better because I didn’t know anything. That’s why I went out with him. Thirty-five is so late to come out of the closet, so late to begin that awkward, sweaty procedure of dating. Especially internet dating. Especially gay internet dating. From the filtered profile pics of tanned faces I’ve…
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Inheritance
by Andrea Ruggirello One morning when I was in high school, I borrowed my mother’s earrings. Round, gold cages with pearls in the center. No one at school seemed to notice them, but I held them gently between my forefinger and thumb as I sat in class. Somewhere, on the walk home maybe, I lost…
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How to Bake a Nickname
by Najla Brown Ingredients: 1 two-syllable name that’s been marinating in four generations of not-American to be placed on a floured roll sheet for unsuspecting mouths to taste. 1 stick of unsalted child to be left out until her identity melts into something palatable enough to spread on toast. 1/2 tablespoon of corrections poured straight…
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The Photograph at the End of the World
by Amanda Kallis The last snow on the planet will be red: red from bacteria in spastic bloom. A feast on arctic plains before the lights go out. I hunt for details like this, the lurid and symbolic, that will give the end of the world some teeth in my mind—because, try as I might,…
