Category: Poetry

“girls against god,” an ekphrastic poem by sterling-elizabeth arcadia

after annihilation (2018) remember how you cheated on heavenstared that alligator-angel in its eye & shot it dead? how your vertebrae surged with joyshimmered against the skin of your spine. he left you between dark walls& corrupting light—heaven-sent heaven gone to be in the south. with the silent wateramong those crystal trees. & when your…
“the silence feat. uranus, neptune,” a poem by Michael Russell

in the new dubfor season 3 of sailor moon, the outer guardiansuranus & neptune are lovers who came from the coldestpocket in space, the unstitched hem of our galaxy.their mission: to burn through the silenceglaive pressed against the thin cherry blossomof a human throat. their throats, maybe—ours? boyfriend, on a crowded street how many planets…
Side A: “the cinder path,” a poem by Zach Savich

the cinder path harder to writemyself a noteon the back of the eulogythan the eulogyit takes a long timeto tune and longerto trust sometimesthe captions say“[gentle minor melody]”sometimes “[windactivates the motionalarm]” the fantasyat thirty-nineis a hamburger inthe parking lot by the squatlighthouse scrap beachif you touch me herebelow the throatit smells of rainthere isn’t roomon…
“Black. Star. Pieces.”: Side A Poetry by Matthew Cooperman

Black. Star. Pieces. —for Rosmarie Waldrop 1 The gathering of parts to their parts, will there be gathering of parts? Time, in a word, reading. As in, where did the song begin? Go on. Singing the terrible truth of the world, a griot through an open window. Something happened on the day he died, I…
The Future: “In Another Lifetime,” from a crown of sonnets by Tomas Nieto

In a basement in what was known as Seattle, a watchmakersolders a metal wing onto a robot bird, springing it to lifewith the weight of gear as engine—motion as ignition. Thisis the closest thing to impulse without nerve, thrill, or grief.In another lifetime, fortune tellers read love linesthrough circuits and wires, speaking wonders from matrix,destiny…
Four Poems by Joel Anthony Harris

Prince Varmint Stops a Viking Siege I’ll never forget the Bastille Day, how it stormed the countrytown like a kettle of vultures. Yeomen toiled in fallow fields hacking the soil with their harrows.From the north hailed a drab dragonship that fiddled the still moat.There he was the wretched sprite, the scoundrel: Sam the Terrible!His eyes were…
From “devours itself”: a mixed media collaboration for The Future by Alexandra Mattraw & Adam Thorman

*Ed.’s Note: click on image to view larger size. The Image Devours Itself 1 Adam Thorman If only my mouth it is that I will turn, seaward. Glow the apple in your phone we stand cliffside. Click pictures : Blue lace borders what isn’t. Cyclone, chain, center beach caving. Unseen I in the dream you…
Side A: “OUR SPERM COUNT IS DOWN!,” a collaborative work by Vi Khi Nao & Jessica Alexander

OUR SPERM COUNT IS DOWN! We watched a magic-heist last night. It was like J.K. Rowling wrote an episode of Law & Order & David Mamet directed it. We thought the magicians were one step ahead of the law but the law was the greatest magician of all. We agreed the female lead was too pretty…
“O Pen the State/open the say/ate the stated,” a Side A Poem by Tony Mancus

O Pen the State/open the say/ate the stated We are always one link from disaster blinking the clouds top the mountains like thought bubbles from the earth with a silhouette of a person crossing above the road some wearing a reality backdrop/terminus and beginning/eventually the body forgets how to swallow the mirror in every eye shaving reality drops behind its work zone sign blinking cream true what roots we…