Category: The Last Word

Poetry: “Air Canada” by Kirstin Ethridge

We could fly to Thunder Bay on a plane, kissing our palms and pressing them to the cold metal exterior before boarding, listening to the scarf-wearing flight attendant rattle off safety instructions in English and en Français. We used to joke, but now it’s true: fuck America, I’ll take my chances with the cold. Thunder…
Exclusive Interview: Benefit Album for Chelsea Manning Organized Thanks to Trans/Genderqueer Activist Evan Greer

The journalist, singer/songwriter, and activist has called on some of the biggest names in the music industry to support the US Army soldier and whistleblower. By Bernadette Giacomazzo Image: Chelsea Manning Instagram The name “Chelsea Manning” invokes a wide variety of reactions—people think she’s either a patriot or a traitor, a freedom fighter or a terrorist,…
Three Poems by Jessica Abughattas

Attachment (fearful-avoidant) Our half-drunk glasses of Cava by the kitchen sink. Smashing stems into the dust until my knuckles are bloodied. Opening the cupboard for more ammo. My roommate picking me up by the shards a soaked towel at my temples. Remembering the night we swallowed pills, danced a city into the living room. Singing…
Two Poems by Diego Quintero

Yankees The fall of a sound a shirt wrapped in sweat, the mouth the tooth both conjugated with spasm in flesh Sing my love, please sing the flesh made for each other inside each other. And Mom? And the house? She didn’t know of singular professions; the subtle act of bullfighting or playing out…
Five Poems from Monologues in the Era of the Monologist: Julie Strand

Ego Eco Iceberg: In the Dreamscape of the Monologist Bigly I love you. Bigly because the density of pure ice is about 920 kg/m³. Bigly I swear, that the density of seawater is 1025 kg/m³, is bigly you know. And bigly I hate you, but bigly I care. Bigly because most of me is above…
Essay: “Seattle Women’s March, 2017” by Amberly Baker

We are perched at the top of a hill, waiting, feet already starting to ache against the pavement. In front of us is a traffic light barrier we are not yet allowed to pass. My hands shake as I move in a small circle, careful to keep to myself, careful not to bump into anyone…
Essay: “Allyship” by Will Waller

Will Waller is a queer disabled experimental speculative author from the Finger Lakes Wine Region of New York whose writing focuses on memory, music, and the weather. After two years spent in San Francisco as the Managing Editor of Eleven Eleven, he moved to St. Louis to tune pianos and write. His experimental genre novelette,…
A Collage & Two Poems by Joe Balaz

*Ed.’s Note: click image to view larger size. Immigration Killjoy Mechanical Sparrows All da mechanical sparrows stay broken chirp, chirp, choking to da oncoming corrosion as da shiny birdhouse up on da hill deteriorates into wun pile of small chips. Sing, song, singing along wit da copper doves on da telephone wires and…
Five Poems by Geoff Anderson

Excerpts: Letters from Thomas Jefferson to Barnum & Bailey [W]e have the wolf by the ear and feel the danger of either holding or letting him loose.—Thomas Jefferson January 3, 1776 A ringmaster’s best audience is a crowdof peers; who better to understandthe plight of standing outside a cageall the while knowing the bars holdback…