ROSS KILPATRICK
Honecker gave the order / To shoot on the inner wall / So comrades died, piled up / Under the American red and whites / Of western Coca-Cola signs // But before the BDR Richter, / Honekcer pleaded / ohne juristische oder / moralische Schuld / For humane end / And to Chile he fled…Continue Reading Staat und Mauer
QUINCY SMITH
Roads that lead nowhere / Cracked pavement snaps open under my toes // The trees bark at me / The leaves are still falling // My breath is shallow / A whisper // People cross paths / The skin on their arms only separated by pain…Continue Reading Stop and Stare
A’CORA HICKSON
There’s a difference / Between being alone and being lonely / You can crave to be alone / Crave to be still / In the room / In the space / In the world / But being lonely hits you like a speck of dust / Falling on your arm / It sits and waits on the ledge / Praying / Planning / Its next attack / It goes unnoticed / In the room / In the space / In the world…Continue Reading It Will Pass?
ANNA ZHOU
Draped in the Moon Goddess’ waning light, / I write secret love letters: / to a motherland I’ve never felt the right to know / to warm bowls of bean curd flowers and soy milk, / so white and weightless and pure / I imagine Chang’e herself adorned in flowing robes / of rich jade amongst the stars….Continue Reading Dear Shanghai | 亲爱的上海
TARA ALAHAKOON
I adapted to life out of focus. // My world was an impressionist painting: earthy hues blended the landscape as swaths / of grey streaked across the sky. // Silouettes danced in and out, / their edges fuzzy. // Like an artist, I played with light….Continue Reading In Focus
ROSS KILPATRICK
Though rivers make untrue / that Land is borderless / (we aren’t mermaids / to intermingle with the sea) / I wish I were / a freshwater octopus, / all kisses and soft touches, / For bones are such a burden / to us, the nationless / and lying in the depths / letting little death sing / there’d be no shame…Continue Reading Though Untrue
TAPTI SEN
Please come sit next to me- / I want to lay my head in your lap and / whisper about the boy you love / as you braid flowers in my hair. Once, / I knew you like I knew myself, and / now, I wonder if history is all we / have left….Continue Reading Reunion
ZOE ALARCON
As the leaves succumb to a coral shade / You’re reminded of your own freshness / How with each summer comes as naturally a deep renewal / A solidifying of insights / But its fragile underpinnings are also suddenly more visible / And the trees’ tactless, rapid shedding / rekindle your sympathy for your own dead leaves…Continue Reading Fall Relapse
A’CORA HICKSON
insignificance. you would say. little you feel. / passing is what i feel. but in reality i am the one stuck. // breezing past like a leaf caught in the wind. / i am the tree. // the motion of the picture. / i am that one, still shot….Continue Reading i am what you don’t see
KALIDAS SHANTI
Maybe I should reconsider my position / on the camera. Maybe it is worth / that last smile inside the apartment, / the room that I gave up on (the one / with bullet holes but in which I could never / find the bullets), the vacuous spider…Continue Reading Absences in Personal Narrative
QUINCY SMITH
The inside of my palms are dirty / From the concrete blocks I sat on // The concrete was pressing against my palm / Creating a print in shape of pebbles // I look down and see the shape this concrete drew on my hand / My fists clench and unclench // Almost as if its searching for feeling / Almost as if i’m not feeling and I need to move to feel…Continue Reading If I Let It Happen
KALIDAS SHANTI
McDonald’s pancakes sink / the only place to eat / this breakfast before the 6 am bus / this dinner once it drops you off late / never for you, for them on odd days / who live under your roof? / Your son in the Navy to go sea / where you only dream of / maybe you’d call that attachment…Continue Reading Food For Thought On Even Days
ROSS KILPATRICK
You’re nothing but a simple minded bot. / And before algorithmic gods give true accounts / Performing tasks without our feeble minds, so fraught // Click on all the hydrants, or sinners will be caught / And captcha will proudly announce / You’re nothing but a simple minded bot….Continue Reading Captcha: A Villanelle
ZOE AKOTO
It’s something like six a.m. when I roll downstairs / and you’re already there, making coffee. // We manage smiles, faint good mornings / pre-caffeine triumphs, even on a good week, / and I slip past you, put on the tea kettle / and settle in at the end of the counter. / It’ll take longer than it should. / I still fill the kettle for two cups, / less on instinct now and more / in defiance / and I wonder when I’ll quit that….Continue Reading A Brief Odyssey of Grief
SPENCER WILLIAMS
I, Spencer Williams, hereby pledge I will return to this city. / I will watch the gray pavement dark with rain,
the steaming carts pushed by the street vendors / with ripped pantsuits and crooked smiles….Continue Reading Ecology of a Dark City
SPENCER WILLIAMS
kind sun and gentle light / flutters rosy fingers behind pale curtains / and dips over your shoulders to settle and sleep. / at our feet the dog / siiiighs / and his lazy head drifts / upward…Continue Reading Ecology of a Beach House Love
CAROLINA CORDON
Hi there. I didn’t see you. // Now that we’re here together, let’s take a deep breath. / Close your eyes. And // Inhale. Feel your lungs expand. Your muscles grow. Energy bubbling inside you. // Swirling. Swirling….Continue Reading Conversations with my TikTok Therapist
SARA ATTIA
You have woken up for the first or last time in your life. A. Apple Tree or Mountainside River? / If apple tree, go to B. If River, go to E. …Continue Reading Myth of the Garden