Category: Poetry

“Elk Splat,” a poem by Taneum Bambrick

The canyon the river ran through was bowl shaped & you could see from the water sometimes sheep on its rim. Our boat noise would collect in one wall and spill over the ledge of the next. That must’ve been what happened—a jet ski, for example, cutting through the middle of the gorge can sound…
Three Poems by Heikki Huotari

Guiding God At God’s request, I throw the ball. God brings the ball back wet. I palm the ball and swing my arm. God searches where He thinks the ball should be. The evening and the morning are the seventh day. God watches closely and I say, Remember, God, what happened last time, but of…
Poetry by MK Chavez: “You Can’t Spank the Monkey Forever, the Monkey Hates It”

Like porn, casual sex will eventually get boring. If the person you’re considering having sex with makes you feel dirty and ashamed before penetration, imagine how it will feel once your heart is harpooned and a mere figurehead on a prow. Everyone can be a unicorn if they stop being a dick. If someone has…
“At Large,” a poem by Brennan Bestwick

In the land of outlawed love,you and I collect police composite sketchesof one another. We pull our mug shotsfrom the spineof every telephone pole in the city. The local news airs videoof the two of us necking in the museum,Goya etchings of demons over our shoulders.We dissolveinto each other’s static beforethe footage ends. I throw…
Prose Poetry: Three County Fairs by Cary Stough

The Year I Lost an Eye I’m at the county fair riding the Wurlitzer or Accordion when suddenly I want to be on a different ride. Maybe Button Mountain or The Ride. I slide into my seat and wonder, Wurlitzer or accordion. I scratch my chin as the lady comes by to jam the bar…
“You Are/No Longer,” a poem by Shannon Hearn

You Are/No Longer how muchdoes it hurt when you runover a shadowover your ownshadow. is it too heavytoo much sinking in-to the ground i’m askingwhere does it hurt and whendoes it know you are making itmore heavyon purpose Shannon Hearn is a recent graduate of the University of Connecticut where she studied Journalism and English…
Poetry by Trina Burke: “Argument Against the Earthy Pigments”

Our family motto is I want to hold my son and have him talk at me with the cuteness of dumping beer-drowned slugs. Pericarditis. Someone put a cork in the aorta. It sounds like a valentine. The apples are at that stage of unblemished ripeness that is perfect and I don’t have to worry about…
Two Poems by Matt Muth

Celebration Lane Be large o heart hug the sumof this world close: its shiny skin its Chinesefamilies stuffing fries into their kidsits Tesla bulbs its bindis tinselwinking in Fendi shades all of us a tight and liquid macraméof living well the light show at the IMAXa sentimental crumple zone the percussionsection’s toms the bands betweenthe…
Excerpt from Gimme the Pretty: Sonnets, poetry by Devon Wootten

What hath might & what hath lament—prolly.Reader, banality’s preferable, i.e., bad faith &/or dialectic,intolerable ambiguity. Reader, take the easy way,mankind &Christendom. * Reader, I’d elsewhere’d it—donesensed & re-sensed,made full & made whole.Reader,them’s the most-dead.Them’s the foolishness.[Breathing]T’ave found want.T’ave found what’s lack & t’ave fasted on’t—O, well-nigh incarnate,stay with me.O, hold-out,O, cut of mine, what’s lent…