Category: The Last Word

Four Poems by Schyler Butler

If Forced to Join Maleatra Montanez know that he will sayyour legs burst wide like syrup pouredhis throat the drain what was he to dobut unload blame ontoyour blackstrap skinslaughter within youwhat little dignityremained, boy childof yours in the cornerforever tamed, anotherreceptacle of shame What the Devil Tells Me I wouldn’t blame your fatheror the…
Akusua A. Akoto: Three Poems

Mother’s Dance #1 Mother does notWant to dance aloneCome childShe’s trying to bringYou into the musicOf her tears Her mouth is bleedingIn the center of this prayer.There is no waterIn her danceAs she stumbles forHer father Her hands are achingAnd in her pleaFor salvationShe is naked As hands touch herShe knowsShe will be raped againUnder…
Two Poems by Joanna C. Valente

I’m Tired of Men Telling Me They’re Afraid I’m Going to Write about Them It isn’t a dreamwhen you wake up with snakeswrithing over you your body like a gardena bed of leaves and ivy so twisted and overgrownand full of dirt, dry and barren that you are woken up again as a beasta womana…
Collaborative Poetry: “In a Late Stage” by Tony Mancus & CL Bledsoe

In a Late Stage It’s not a question of outrunningthe bear; it’s a questionof perfectly seasoning the salmon. A man with no hair and a bagfull of herbs is slightly lessdangerous than a clutch of piranha. The equation starts with a soundunlike thunder, someone screamingnumbers into a small bowl. Arrange them just right, and you’ll…
“Four Poems by a Middle-Aged Woman”: Laura Lee Washburn

After the Surgeon Cuts You or the bone snaps in eight places,the world recognizes youas the vessel for their trauma. Strangers say, Chasing the dog,my third toe snapped rightin half. Or Straight up! No break but seven stitches betweenthe smallest and next. I wasstabbed in the headby a guy in a white mask. Or, Doctor…
“Sa (funeral koans)”: Poetry by Yohnmean Yoh

1 Secretary of State Dean Acheson actually greeted the invasion with relief, as it justified massive military appropriations that were essential to carrying out the vision of American pre-eminence outlined in the top-secret National Security Council Report 68 of April 1950. —Jeremy Kuzmarov, “The Korean War: Barbarism Unleashed” (2016) … rhetoric would not have…
Poetry by Tamer Sa’id Mostafa: from triliteral roots

—after Craig Santos Perez [ra-ha-meem (womb):] i named my first star on a farmhouse roofin Kafr El Zayat flooding fennel seedinto the divots of a mortar an oud’s fifth stringdanced like a caudex [rahma (compassion):] the moon blued its dust to our voicesa mother tongue unadulterated a nasheedof desert roses surrendering to their stems…
Five Poems by Vanessa Saunders

Blame It on a Woman Blame it on a woman. She who argues not for the accuracy, but for the integrity of our Art. How I could not sleep. The slow systemic death of our garden. The sound of your voice. All of your belongings, just as you left them. Baby, I’ve found God. Are…
Poetry by Josiah Morgan: “The Bee Gees Sing Me to Sleep”

Funny the things you make time for. vodka reruns a million hours sleep the city on a good nightironic an intermission grindr babe in the back of the car chic new looks on city twinxthe city on a bad night vodka reruns quickly, misread me sleepa million hours alexander mcqueen two pizzas restocking things you’ve…