Category: The Last Word

Writers getting the last word. HFR is invested in elevating art by marginalized groups with this feature.

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…
“The Importance of Learning How to Match Your Foundation”: Fiction by Em Mingus

I. When I was in third grade I got my first job. I helped my neighbor roll all the coins in his ten-gallon jugs into the paper wrappers he got from the bank. He had about eight containers filled to the brim with dull metal hidden the back of his basement. We could only work…
Aby Kaupang Poetry: Selections from 13 Words

In the month following Donald Trump’s election to President of the United States, the Southern Poverty Law Center received over 1,094 reports of hate crimes. A burst of hate. The following poems were written with the assistance of the Hate on Display database through the Anti-defamation League’s website and in-part for the Holter Museum of…
Three Princess Poems by Frances Donovan

What Snow White Swallows ginger snaps /a matchstick square pizza in the school cafeteriaher body spreading in the mirror / grotesque the white cheek of a poison applethe red cheek of a poison apple cookies from the keebler elvesgrow up fast /her fault her fault her fault arnold whole wheat bread /sweet bliss of chocolate…