HANNAH KWON
I am asking you to dismantle me / ever-so tenderly, to blind me / from my own undoing. Tether me, / instead, to the doe’s glassy eyes, / so I may enshroud myself /
from what I cannot unsee. …Continue Reading Nighttime Ballad for a Green-Blue Song
Category: Poetry
The Home of a Firefly
RIVKAH LEFKOWITZ
Kindnesses that shackle. Skirts with slits. Years that ache. Mantises who pray. Words that taste like deflated whipped cream. Vending machines. Skills which are only useful in another time on another planet. Phobias that deserve mentions in textbooks. Bananas who withdraw when peeled as if ashamed….Continue Reading The Home of a Firefly
from LaGuardia, with love
AVA NAIR
but she turned to me, yesterday morning / & asked, with sour lemons / in her mouth: / what kind of psychopath / places life and death / so close together— / and still calls it home?…Continue Reading from LaGuardia, with love
Bloody Mary 3/5 Stars (Google Reviews)
KATELYN PARROTT
Acidic tomato, puree pustules bursting caustic / against my tongue and salt, / sizzling like hot coals against wet / lips, humming tastebuds dancing / on their tips while heat / plumes up the vent of / my nose. …Continue Reading Bloody Mary 3/5 Stars (Google Reviews)
The Long Way Home
CHRISTOPHER ONSOMU
The curtains of my heart / Were shredded years ago. / A woman, like a lioness, / Tore them — and tore them slow / And left the cut debris / Scattered across the floor. / I’m not avoiding just their love / But what’s behind my door: …Continue Reading The Long Way Home
How I Want to Die
AIDAN COOPER
I don’t know how asparagus grows. / I buckle into my mysteries like belts. / Sometimes I’m asked / why I love the rural life, / & I don’t. I just have a need / to point at earth….Continue Reading How I Want to Die
Won’t You Stay Awhile
CLARA CHIU
She is tying a ribbon, now. If only she could hear me. Oh, the things I would say. / I want to tell her she’s lovely, like my daughter, glassy-eyed and eternal. / I want to make her lovely, like I made my daughter, drifting in the water. / I’m pressing hard against the glass, against the surface, and I can almost reach her….Continue Reading Won’t You Stay Awhile
Starvation
GRACE ESCOE
When I was handed a silver spoon / Put it to my lips / As they told me to open wide / I swallowed without a second thought / The funny thing is / Most people do not tell you the dangers / Of excess/ Of being too full …Continue Reading Starvation
I Go Back to Jamjar
VENUMI GAMAGE
your warm mouth—fragile and tender / is unabating marmalade / and enough— / You said, This is what happens when I hold you for so long….Continue Reading I Go Back to Jamjar
Now, and at the Hour of Our Death
EVELYN SOTO
The boy who sat beside me in the second grade would whisper to me, in fleeting moments when / our teacher turned her back. / In your bathroom. At midnight.
…Continue Reading Now, and at the Hour of Our Death
End Times Theology
KATE BESTALL
a poem is a time machine & rules of time travel apply: you know, / there is nothing you can change that hasn’t already been changed. / in this one, the rain rises. we fall…Continue Reading End Times Theology
Black Longing
SIANI AMMONS
I turned myself to myself & became yr teeth. / I turned yr unfurled teeth into beams of moonlight & was / da pinned legs of a chair. I turned da chair to a kiss…Continue Reading Black Longing
The Angel is in the Bathroom
SARAH GOLDSCHMIDT-HOPKINSON
And maybe I’m imagining the halo but I swear she’s glowing. Imagine lighting up a room. No, really. Let me have this. The bloodshot eyes and the shaking hands and the sink to wash it all away….Continue Reading The Angel is in the Bathroom
Cyclops’ Folly
MICHAEL ANTWI-AYIM
Bodies curl inwards as their souls search for a leave / The cave around them trembles in his rage / His roar rips through the stagnant air / his foul earthen cage…Continue Reading Cyclops’ Folly
water ghost
AVA WONG
my name is but a whisper on / your grandmother’s lips— // syllables itchy like ink / on a wet page, fingers // reaching for a memory, for / the stone they tied…Continue Reading water ghost
good for a gallon
SAM HUANG
GIVE / ME BLOOD / GIVE ME AIR- / PLANES SINKING / SHIPS DEEP INTO / THE SUNLIGHT GIVE / ME CLOWNS DANCING
IN THE WHITES OF EYES / WIDE OPEN AND WATCHING / GIVE ME BASSLINES SHAKING / EVERY BONE UNTIL THE BODIES…Continue Reading good for a gallon
RED RED RED
AMAYA RANATUNGE
I. Red Blood / Red is the blood running through aliens, / strangers of the stars, / amongst invisible borders of burning galaxies. / Red are the veins trembling / when spaceships crash into …Continue Reading RED RED RED
Bartender Hypnosis
HADLEY HUNT
When I serve Bloody Marys / On late Sunday mornings, / I sneak a straw-taste /
while they await garnish. // My tongue rolls on my lips. / It may take infinite Sundays until I stop / Wincing at the spice….Continue Reading Bartender Hypnosis
Starchild 11:25
CHELA CUNNINGHAM
i’ve been to the movies six billion times and kept every ticket. i’ve raged and written. lined up all my bodies and carefully selected who i wanted to be that night….Continue Reading Starchild 11:25
New Eyes
BEA AGBI
the hospital’s radiology and imaging floor / I took a look at my bones
and the x-ray confirmed what I already knew – / that these branches are palms,
this skin bark, no difference between breath / and chlorophyll save the distinctions / of time. When I’m no longer standing / Still waiting for a word from the old gods / When I’ve given up on keeping my lips clenched…Continue Reading New Eyes
Self-Portrait Axed & Open
GABBY AVENA
A child is a fruit, I am told. Time carves / my center: two bodies twine inside / like aphids around bark. Harvested / fruit, your flesh emerges peach-soft & fuzzy, / sweetness suckling upon release. I shudder: / the taste is fear, or relief. A child is a fruit: from which / a new world is born. A child is a fruit: dropped & bruised / & poisoned….Continue Reading Self-Portrait Axed & Open
Forever Green
RIS PAULINO
I scale the cracked shingles, the roof warm beneath my palms, / each grip a reminder that not all heights can be measured in feet. / The sun slips sideways, brushing against the window panes, / and I stand there, taller than the house that never grew with me. / I look off toward the sunset, / and see a treeline—…Continue Reading Forever Green
Stepping
LILA SCHLISSEL
And everybody’s showing a rib-cage to the / rib-watchers, head thrown back/throat exposed so we can see the / ridges do you see me we are asking / don’t you see us…Continue Reading Stepping
the smell of the ocean hit me first.
KYLA BISCOCHO
we were on your balcony, / the waves nearly drowning out our words / and I pulled my sweater tight, dampened by the mist, / as you pointed at the hulking metal structures / which you told me were oil rigs / that lit up the sea for miles / reminding you of Christmas trees / floating at the edge of the horizon….Continue Reading the smell of the ocean hit me first.
where we learn to love and hate and cry
SARAH DOWN
You have tainted every sacred space / You– who held me holy in my love and rage / Kissed my balm-blistered palms / And wiped milk from my lips…Continue Reading where we learn to love and hate and cry
who gets away with living forever?
SAM HUANG
imagine this: a murder mystery where everybody knows
who the killer is but me, doomed from the start. everybody has
already identified the guilty party, throwing this party–is this fun
for you?…Continue Reading who gets away with living forever?
Words Unsaid
EMILY WYKOFF
You are full of empty promises / Lies hidden in kind equivocations / I’m tired of running in circles, chasing my tail / Trying to chase you …Continue Reading Words Unsaid
DRAG SELF-PORTRAIT ACROSS JUPITER & ALL THAT COMES BACK IS IN NYX EYELINER & THE FEAR OF DYING NOT EVEN GORGEOUS
AIDAN COOPER
In all my experience the boy /
has what it takes to break / away, unfurl the tootsie roll / lollipopped in the cherry
…Continue Reading DRAG SELF-PORTRAIT ACROSS JUPITER & ALL THAT COMES BACK IS IN NYX EYELINER & THE FEAR OF DYING NOT EVEN GORGEOUS
A Collection of Life
GRACE ESCOE
I have never understood the want to / Live forever / Be ever young / To never age / Evergreen…Continue Reading A Collection of Life
Green Apple Walls
HADLEY HUNT
the painted lavender walls watched me since birth.
the floral printed sheets bathed me since my chubby toes
first touched the ground. the smells of all things fresh and innocent,
doors always open,
windows tipped upwards,
sweet experiments concocted in the kitchen down the hall….Continue Reading Green Apple Walls