“Anemone” by Savannah Parker

She whistles in his ear, a stonelike tune, lying amid delicate sunlight, flickering in three-part harmony with glistening shards of grass, whirl-pooling across shared space— an apology laced in borrowed melody In lyrical exchange, he strums a weary lyre, catching words she cannot voice, nylon chords humming with unreleased tension Read more…

“mother’s sadness” by Elias Lind

She’s so pure, that woman with waxing moons for eyes Floating through the kitchen constructing her craft Her eyes, they ask, so I reply, “You are.” “I found it for you” she’s told me From the floor, she’s picked it for me: “Thank you.” Eventually, the kitchen floor sprouts small Read more…

“Selfishness” by Elias Lind

My days fluctuate in a sinusoidal manner, sometimes a day with glistening green and brilliant blue is just out of my view. Others I profess its beauty like it’s my country’s banner, and being unable to bear the beauty seals my corpse with a screw. Now this corpse knows life, Read more…

“naked” by Jaylen Parker

if i only exist to you when i’m naked then let my clothes decorate your room.   let my Led Zeppelin shirt adorn the wall  next to your band posters.   let my black pants compliment the  overflowed hamper in the corner.   let my lacey, white bra blend in  Read more…

“Over the Ocean” by Brooks Reeves

Seventeen short years, I followed the prints That I never thought  Would fade from firm sands.   And before the moon Moved the tide up the shore, Erasing fast the marks Of our future and past,   You wondered over water To the horizon far, While I, unbalanced by breakers Read more…

“THE BUDDHA” by John Grey

Such repose. Such calm. Such peace.   If only I were an enlightened one, and not some guy trying to get by.   If only I could take the noble eightfold path and not the commuter bus.   If only I could reach the sphere of nothingness and not have Read more…

“Tsunami” by Benjamin Faro

—but unwelcome, the Pacific barges  into private spaces, like the many voices  of your mother while you’re making love.    How the waves under which I entered you  enter harder the holy homes of our good kin— waste away our neighbors’ wealth, however makeshift—and their hearts—and televisions  pieced together, restaurants, homes of Read more…

“Closure” by Andrea Gutierrez

The candle burns alone as a forgotten light in a heavy darkness, painting shadows around ceramic saints and angels placed upon my grandfather’s bedside table,  as final offerings for a lost ram never humbled by the shepherd.   I was not there when he died, but a silent prayer was Read more…

“Spoons” by Terra Peranteaux

they said we were spoons in the drawer our curves could never hide teeth never burn never puncture but our reflections came back upside down and they never saw how we snared them in the vines twisting down our necks Terra Peranteaux is a student at Utah State University. Her Read more…

“To Zoey” by Andrew Benzinger

Although her departure was thought long due, Over the house descends a surprised hush. Though home’s populace shifts from three to two, Relieve grief with memory’s poignant flush. Remember the time she chewed my toothbrush To shreds the morning of Carmen’s wedding; And the thunder that compelled her to rush Read more…

“In a Museum” by Alex Cross

I feel like three identical brown squares in a diagonal line. I feel like I get more and more illiterate every single day. Cool story, man. What’s the difference between regular black and blackest black? Trademarks. What makes colored squares on a wall into gallery art? Pretension. I think it’s Read more…

“Litchfield” by Emily Wolfe

Those backwoods years.  Shooting bullfrogs big as your head on the old farm pond- Watching the bullets skip   Rabbits melted by the shotgun. Stew in their bones- The scent of thyme  heavy in  summers heat-   Bluegill and sunfish Bask in their glory on  the bottom of the boat Read more…

“Orpheus’ Prologue” by Clarissa Bond

Inspired by “Eurydice’s Footnote,” by A. E. Stallings I Be careful when you speak the name Of Orpheus; For though I hear he’s everywhere— In bars, on Broadway, and in beats Of poetry, both yours and mine— He’s still owed some respect; He’s still owed some contempt; Are you not Read more…

“Worms” by Matthew Carpenter

The worms sleep in the silty loam Until their tunnels fill with rain They wriggle up through mud and bore Trap doors to rooms inside my brain Once in, they wriggle and they writhe Those pinky-wide digesting tubes Just a mouth, body trailed behind With sole purpose and no intent Read more…

“Plastic Eucalyptus” by Jessica Hamlin

Guilt fits underneath every one moment of calm, A lull in the squeaking Contains perforated promises Of Scotch-taped brokenness Concentrated clouds of Warm, oiled air Can’t remove the layers of dirt and dust and skin who lay under there To water a velvet fern is not to establish roots To Read more…

“PREPARE” by Abasiama Udom

Lift the bowl with burnt out wood, pick the fronds of the of palm to sweep for Bari; your God will not visit no, not a dirty householf the angels bearing seed will repel lift the bowl, wipe the floor keep ready my child. Be ready. I have called, the Read more…

“elegy.” by Cecilia Webb

this is my home, i said, and the smiling photos hanging on the stairs seemed to concur. it comes back to me: child i was— dirty fingernails, twisted teeth— exalting in summer storms thrumming against my window, or weeping over dead fireflies in a jar and panhandlers when my father Read more…

“Blue Hydrangeas” by Shannon Rainey

She remembers the first time A boy bought her flowers. Hydrangeas, blue — Funny thing, hydrangeas. Their color can shift between pink or blue Based on the soil where they grow. These grew out of sourness, acidity That turned the petals to ice. The meanings change as much as the Read more…

“Oh, Sweet Woman” by Isabel Hutchinson

Morning Sun, Edward Hopper, 1952   Loneliness is the strangest of emotions, longing to feel the warm, intimate touch of another and somehow terrified to let anyone close enough to experience my pain, as if my instability will flow like chilled water into their bones, it perpetuates itself and perpetuates Read more…

“Vellichor” by Diana Richtman

Heat bubbles up and cloaks this whole place until I’m taking stifling breaths and wiping slick sweat from my forehead as I pour over pages. Even the faded cat won’t raise her head or let me pet her. We’re tall but the shelves with their gray-smelling books loom over us Read more…

Untitled by Jennifer Tatman

Jessica has long brown hair and a well-earned tan as she disappears into Coronado High School (Go Islanders). She walked through the courtyard to the stairs and up to her class covering her eyes when she walked between the shadows of the palm trees. She hopped over understated black and Read more…

“Judgement Day” by Emma Marie

Who am I when you find your Oxycodone?   and when your face is not disgusted as you hold in your cigarette smoke for a few seconds longer.  It’s not melancholy, it can’t be. It’s lavender you cut with your hatchet and broken bones.  It’s a new form of artistry, you Read more…

3 Poems by Marianna Hagler

Something more tender than metaphor I can tell she’s looking for some thing more tender than metaphor—a shimmering textual cylinder, a shelf of self-help run thru a chipper- shredder, a New York Times best-seller — Ownmost i like any thing that lights up on its own— cats’ eyes, children’s sneakers, Read more…