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
Category: Poetry
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
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
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
From the Porch
GEORGE HENRY
From Aunt Zell’s porch, I see myself etched into clumps of baked coral that have clambered out of the sea & up this hill
where they pretend to be rocks but only fool themselves…Continue Reading From the Porch
Haircut
SARAH GOLDSCHMIDT-HOPKINSON
You look different. This time your hair is [red / pink / blonde] and I love it. You are [as beautiful as the last time I saw you / as beautiful as the last time I saw you / as beautiful as the last time I saw you].
…Continue Reading Haircut
I need you
ZOE ALARCON
you’re born into the ripe age of freedom
jaded children rowdy roar, hungry stuffed on chicken patties
girls can be whatever they want to be!
…Continue Reading I need you
Mango
BEA AGBI
I didn’t want the mango. I didn’t / want it I was full Just let me have a bit / but my mother said no bites, / peeling and putting it / into my hands, yellowredgreen soft / and malleable in its ripeness, eat / the whole thing. …Continue Reading Mango
family dinner: still life in silence and salt
HANNAH KWON
and this salt would spread quickly, like grief / always does, trickling into red pepper paste / and flakes of anchovy skin, salt desecrating / the soup we’d double-dip our spoons into, / so when metal met our lips, …Continue Reading family dinner: still life in silence and salt
In Lieu of Language
MADI SUH
in lieu of language, / i stuff my mouth. / i do not know how to say the words for all the banchan. / i only know how to eat, / how to be hungry, how to ask for more….Continue Reading In Lieu of Language
Growing Pains
By FEDORA LIU
So sugary sweet / It rotted my teeth // Back then there were boundless pools of sap here / I thought I would never go hungry // I thought I would live forever….Continue Reading Growing Pains
Rose Colored Boxes
RUTH ZURAW
Our morning-stretched shadows / graze, overlap on the pavement— / heat curling around calves / in gentle waves. …Continue Reading Rose Colored Boxes
Bringing
LILA SCHLISSEL
She will bring me gifts / teeth and black licorice lips cradling some / bird / with hollow bones / and lay / it / in my lap / unscathed, if confused / and / covered in a little spit…Continue Reading Bringing
One More Bite
OLIVIA KELLER
Every day is the same. / Wake up, go to class, do work, go to bed. / Like clockwork – tirelessly stuck in a loop going tick by tock. / Boredom sets in and my thoughts wonder….Continue Reading One More Bite
Forticus, the Blanket Fort
GABBY AVENA
A hold unto our- / selves, hidden under blankets / that color the air // red is the evening cupped in / eggnog and projector light…Continue Reading Forticus, the Blanket Fort
Fragment #2 (Lysis)
By AIDAN COOPER
You river your fingers, / I dip my toes in, water us // until lotus flowers ring / the space between our knuckles….Continue Reading Fragment #2 (Lysis)
Orange Me Open
ELSA LYONS
Does the orange want to be peeled? Tenderly / I push my fingernail through her stubborn rind, // reveal the bulge of her white-veined flesh. / She’s almost throbbing with juices. They’re almost // circulating through her. It’s almost music….Continue Reading Orange Me Open
mandarin
ELLA LIN
and she peels me / another mandarin. i imagine / we must look strange, / our mouths dripping juice like broken faucets / into the night. her black hair / falling further, with nothing below. the broken mirror hanging / above wet paint on bathroom walls….Continue Reading mandarin
Communion
CHELA CUNNINGHAM
i want to study your lines of (division) / the trinities that make you (divine). / and when the Christian missionaries walk by us / i’ll ask them if they’ve heard of my god …Continue Reading Communion
Homecoming
TAPTI SEN
I taste dirt. I chew flesh. I pick at scabs. I gnaw at flesh like a dog that just can’t let go. I twirl my fork around tendrils of hair. I roll ice cubes on my tongue. I lick at my collarbones, prodding and probing like a—…Continue Reading Homecoming
The Moldau
CLARA CHIU
And in those gaps that mediate truth, I’ll wait for you in the field we talked of,…Continue Reading The Moldau
[WORKING TITLE]
MEL ARTHUR
I tell my therapist with a mouthful of
squirming tree branches & …….Continue Reading [WORKING TITLE]
love poem that ends & begins at Amherst Cinema
SIANI AMMONS
it’s a nameless Thursday & i feel my footsteps…………Continue Reading love poem that ends & begins at Amherst Cinema
A TOAST TO AVARICE
MYLES KAPLAN
Looking up, the splendid clamor of
silver utensils……..
…Continue Reading A TOAST TO AVARICE
mutagenesis
KATE BESTALL
feed me love & i’ll crack it
open like a sunflower….
…Continue Reading mutagenesis
May this Bald Body Bring Us
LEYDN MCEVOY
The other day, you pointed out the window / to the glorious hills we call mountains. / These trees tall with secrets, ours– / their tops we cannot see, only dream to, and I forget how little your hand fixes your hair. …Continue Reading May this Bald Body Bring Us
Dear Diary
MADI SUH
these days all my thoughts have begun to feel like letters to you / sometimes it hurts to think. talking to you is easier. / and so, / hi. / i have not been creative as of late. / lately you have begun to take residence inside some part of me; in particular, you do spend a lot of time in my head. / hi….Continue Reading Dear Diary
Untitled
MARIAM BESHIDZE
When does a body become a thing? / When it stares from beyond the glass / At the conglomeration of people surrounding it, / Shedding tears on a Persian carpet. / When it cannot smell the patchwork / of dead flowers laying on top of it. …Continue Reading Untitled
Self Portrait As The Thing Left in the End
MEL ARTHUR
In the shower, the hot water has taken time to start a revolution. I figured now is not the time to put my hands together to ask for grace. Though I wonder what could satisfy me, hear the hum from the back of my knees…Continue Reading Self Portrait As The Thing Left in the End