Category: Poetry

New Poem for Side A: “Migraciones: A Triptych” by Yvette Saenz

Migraciones: A Triptych Triptych I: ApologeticBandidos There is somethinginnocent about theapologetic bandido,that over-told story ofmachismo.It’s the desire to returnpeople to earlier forms,to nudge him gently with abroom into the pastBoy fooling his motherdiscovers she’d never lovehimthe way she lovedAmerica:without a mask. His mother is America. Allof it.How funny that this truthcan never be proven?Proof is…
Haunted Passages Poetry: “I Ask Mom to Tell Me about Life Back on the Rancho” by Jose Hernandez Diaz

She tells me they had a hen house.I ask if only hens lived in the hen house?No, roosters and chicks, too, she says.She proceeds to patiently describe That sometimes coyotes would sneakInto the hen house, moving rocks, with their noses,Blocking doors to the hen houses. Sometimes, she says,Brazen banditos would rob the hen houses of eggs,…
Side A List Poem by Tracy Royce: “Things That Remain Suspended (Handsfree) When Wedged Beneath My Breast”

Things That Remain Suspended (Handsfree) When Wedged Beneath My Breast my electric toothbrush, toothpaste tube, and floss my hair dryer, cord coiled at my feet three organic romaine hearts, nestled in their package one 375 mL can of wine, the kind you buy so you can pretend you’re not going to open a second can…
Two Original Poems: Sarah Fawn Montgomery

This Autistic Puts on Her Mask Because the world wantsa woman smiling louder than her voice, scripts rehearsedbecause the only answer to How are you? is Finewhich is a lie like making eye contact with the centerof someone’s forehead, manufacturing smalltalk and big gestures about the world and weather,whether or not you actually care, autistic…
New Haunted Passages Poetry: “Remember When Exciting” by Daniel Edward Moore

was a murder on the outskirts of town and two hundred jawsdropped quickly to the floor as water troughs on Main Streetfilled with human tears. Horses became tender like kittensyou could ride. Sparrows sang on crime scene tape in aminor key and barns became suspicious of holding morethan hay. Known for their love of God…
The Future Has Poetry: “Water Tastes Like Metal” by David Anson Lee

The tap tastes like the factory that promised a hundred jobsand delivered a century of residue.We boil and filter and boil againuntil only the sediment remembers the river. My neighbor grows potatoes in a tub because the soil refused apologies.His hands are callused maps of a season gone wrong.Children rinse candy in bottled water and…
New for Side A: Haibun Postcard by Judson Evans

Pisgah Inn, Milepost 408.6, Blue Ridge Parkway,199 Hemphill Knob Rd., North CarolinaNov.12, 1997 Dear Numerologists, Drop a race horse, a bullfrog, or a flea from a high place,calculate the damage mass makes squared. Massive rockslides across Blue Ridge Parkway around milepost #408.Equations of chaos can’t quarry from stable sums. Steeproad cuts, planes of schist—shear stress,…
New Side A Haibun Postcard: Judson Evans

Pittsburgh, PA – Warhol Museum,Aug. 17, 1997 Dear Connoisseurs and Collectors— Surprised to discover Warhol had his very own Museum-mausoleum. That he came from a real place, thought maybe hewas a breech birth from a Campbell’s “Tomato Rice” soup can.Always hated the way rice grains looked bloody. I didn’t know he’dbeen shot again and again:…
New Poem for Flavor Town USA: “Abundance” by Caleb Hill

IA can of pumpkin squats besidethe Korean bowl given by my aunt, the poor stone potwhere my culinary brainwaves come to rest, adoptedfor concoctions like this morning’s. My favoritelong-handled teaspoon rushes through the roundsof unlidded ingredients: crumbled feta, pickled olives, peppers, fish,cinnamon and sesame, allspice and onions,split peas shoehorned into cornbread, mozzarella melted inwith mounds…