Tag: Last Word

Two Poems by Kai Coggin

Still (in two parts) I. I find myself lately usingthe word stilllikethere are still flowers,there are still trees,there is still laughter,there is still the silent moon that watches our dark movementsthere are still moments of wonder that can take your breath and turn it magic a lake freezing the sounds it echoes from beneath the changing…
“Daughter’s Lament,” a poem by Candice Kelsey

“The ways in which I am my mother’s daughter are infinite.” ~ Roxane Gay I’m just a blueprint spread across the drafting table like warm butter only I do not melt under your heavy stone palms pressing my corners. Your red pencil a sun dial ready to cast shadows on my body this body…
Poetry: Rebecca Street’s “Sixth Sense”

1. GustationIf I was the one screaming, you were the one covering my mouth. Call this an oversight, if you will. I was too loose. I was shaken, not stirred. I was free and handed to you by a stranger. Remember when you replaced the racket in my hand with a baseball bat? Skull cracks.…
Fiction: Three Thought Experiments by Ron Burch

Thought Experiment 1 You are a white person. You have never been in trouble with law enforcement. You are driving to work. A police car pulls you over. You remove your driver license and registration. Over their loudspeaker, a police officer demands that you put your hands in the air. Both officers have their guns…
Five Poems by Michael Augustine Jefferson

Ode to Robert Jordan, for Whom the Bell Tolls And I went into the wooded area below East and by the creek and there I cried about an hour smoking Newports against a tree with my knees there at the chin and my feet angled awkwardly ugly as it all feels when drained down the…
Three Poems by R.D. Landau

Ghazal Chocolate meditation: listen to the foil crinkle touch the smooth surface, bite off the tip, now eat the kiss. All she wants is to climb a tree in peace. But all these strangers (relatives) demand a kiss. She woke with the pain of childbirth (twins). What prince would slash through briar for a kiss?…
Three Poems by Jill M. Talbot

Saturday Night Palsy (i) I am not sure about this case. But that is not what I meant to say.What I meant was that my fingers disagree—my right hand—left brain has control since I have Saturday Night Palsy where your hand just gives up on life—an existential crisis—and no matter what it won’t face life.…
Five Poems from The Tongue of Narcissus by Jennifer Bullis

Echo’s Letter to Cassandra I can’t say I blame Hera for punishing me with this voicelessness,this accursed repetition. She has run out of ways to punish Zeus except by afflicting those in whom he takes his delights.Take them he does: he does charm, but never asks consent. Leda, Leto, Metis—not one of them told him…
Poetry: “A Non-Apology” by Katie Chicquette Adams

—for Sarah, “The Lion,” interpreter for American forces in Iraq Look, I’m really sorry there are terrifying people in your hometown who want to kill you because you helped me, that’s some rotten luck, for sure, but I gotta look out for me now. Me and mine, y’know? You’re taking this personally— it’s not…