Category: The Last Word

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

“A History of Hosts and Vectors,” poetry by Kristin Abraham

(This will not end well,they said when it began.But momentum appreciatesonly one way, so any onusthey bore was solelyin the act of throwingup their hands to lamentthe thumb of God, how ithovers over our heads.Because no man can ownhis sins when the veryworld is force majeureall the way down to itsspecks and quarks.) Our…
Poetry: Gene Goldfarb’s “they beat the last fish”

senselessfor his pride whenhe stood up to themon his iridescent finsand called their bibledirt in perfect Aramaicso they hid their shameand made him bleedlike his brethrenwhom they strangledand cut up and ate beforethey invented storieslauding themselvesas kings to the cows andsea creatures Gene Goldfarb, a Long Islander, loves writing and keeps trying it. His poems…
Elizabeth Johnston: “Trump Tweets @ Fairy Tales”

*Ed.’s Note: click images to view larger sizes. Elizabeth Johnston’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, The Satirist, New Verse News, and Room Magazine, among many other magazines and collections. A teacher of writing, a feminist activist, and a co-founder of the 4-woman writing group Straw Mat Writers in Rochester, NY, she…
“Samson,” a poem comic by Corey Oglesby

*Ed.’s Note: click images to view larger sizes. Corey Oglesby is a poet, musician, and illustrator from the Washington, D.C., area. His work has recently appeared or is forthcoming in Hobart, Barrow Street, DIAGRAM, Beloit Poetry Journal, Queen Mob’s Teahouse, and elsewhere. Currently the Editor-in-Chief of the literary journal Fugue, he earned his MFA in…
Four Poems by W. Todd Kaneko

Oh, Say Can You See I can’t see anything without my glasses, except the world’s blurred words,the moon’s glow through the window. Tonight, my son calls for his mother,and it’s me who soothes him back to sleep. Then it’s just me on the stairs outsidehis room, looking for a poem to write, something about injustice…
Three Poems by Millissa Kingbird

CW: sexual assault
Poetry: “VW Ramblings” by Kat Cameron

Found poem on a VW bus Check ego. Pay attention.I’m diagonally parked in a parallel universe. Where are we going? Jerome, Arizona.Grow your own dope. I need the money.No guts, no glory. Go for it. It’s the scenic route. Why am I in this handbasket?Don’t make me release the flying monkeys.Bring back the wolf. Plant…
“Race Day,” an essay by Freda Epum

You board a bus and it seems as though there is a sea of Black people. If it weren’t for the fact that your skin is brown, your hair is curly, your eyes are black and almond, and you’ve got a nice ass (or so you’ve been told), you’d think there were no Black people in…
Poetry: “Swallowed Whole” by Christopher Latin

even my god/ can be colonized even my body/ is a preexisting condition but what/ of love/ do we have to be ashamed —from a version of “Crimson Ring,” a poem for Sasha Wall screaming is the best way to not be silent mouthful seizure of want night’s long teeth sweetheart …