by Karen George Georgia O’Keeffe’s Blue No. II, watercolor, 1916 Two blue ears float in an off-white bath—echoes of each other. Lobes, royal blue bleeding to paler tones, hintsof muddy teal and sea green, smudged to imply muffled hearing.Sinister, to see ears unattached. Below, four parallel lines—diagonal slatherssame degression of blues, dark to light. Are […]
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by Jenny Molberg Bitch Monitoring Your Phone I am a citizen detective. I am a sleuth.Now that I know where you are, I do not care. What shall I call my wave-colored moon?How will I occupy it? Where will I erect my flag? The blue tracker dot waits in the red traffic.Don’t come near me, […]
by Jenny Molberg You’re Just Like Everyone Else He’ll say anything He’ll make a steamboat of his mouthand out comes a sick green river You’re the only one You’re water and oar You’re windand undertow We’ll fuck until we fly You know what he’ll do You’re just like everyone elseHe only says this to you […]
by Jenny Molberg Evidence: She Said I wearchartreuse. Under-eye bags. People whisper.I heard she made it up. See me,then don’t. Jenny Molberg is the author of three poetry collections: Marvels of the Invisible (Tupelo Press, 2017), Refusal (LSU Press, 2020), and The Court of No Record (forthcoming from LSU Press, 2023). An NEA fellow, her […]
by Jenny Molberg Evidence: She Said The cops?When he chased medown an alley, they stoodblue, unmoved. He can spin a badge.Turn them. Jenny Molberg is the author of three poetry collections: Marvels of the Invisible (Tupelo Press, 2017), Refusal (LSU Press, 2020), and The Court of No Record (forthcoming from LSU Press, 2023). An NEA […]
by Jenny Molberg Redirect Examination by The Alpha’s Attorney The MeToo poem was shocking, was it not? This was her dogged power of persuasion and not your actions, correct? The accused has written a poem about your treatment of her, has she not? And the poem, though it does not name you, leads people to […]
by Jenny Molberg Evidence: He Said The beach.A dusk becameme. Next thing, a star fell.Her limbs and head its five points. Smallblack hole. Jenny Molberg is the author of three poetry collections: Marvels of the Invisible (Tupelo Press, 2017), Refusal (LSU Press, 2020), and The Court of No Record (forthcoming from LSU Press, 2023). An […]
by Jenny Molberg Statement of The Alpha’s Attorney I say unto thee, these women belong to a cult against men. For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit.[1] My client dreams of the respondents. They spew the blood spatter of men. They awaken my client. They unsettle my […]
by Jenny Molberg The Alpha’s Attorney: Opening Statement Briefly, your Honor. Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, into the house of God for any vow: for even both these are abomination unto the LORD thy God.[1] This is what the LORD says: In the place where […]
by Jenny Molberg Bridge Ann Bryan, 1911–1994. Murdered, St. James Place Retirement Community, Baton Rouge. The women take their places at the bridge table,this day without Ann. North, West, East. I study Ann’s black hair, a curled wreath, in the bookabout her killer. Her large glasses exalt the kind of eyes that speak. What right […]
by Jenny Molberg Shooting at Oakbrook Apartments My neighbor held a gun to his chestand with the other hand, his son, captive for being his son. The bulletpunctured the man, the window, then the air above my head as I peered over the fence.A bullet to the chest can miss the heart. Square in their […]
by Madison Whatley Fatimah Asghar is the author of If They Come for Us: Poems and When We Were Sisters: A Novel. They are a poet, filmmaker, educator, and performer. They are the writer and co-creator of Brown Girls, an Emmy-nominated web series highlighting friendships between women of color. Along with Safia Elhillo, they are […]
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Of What May Come
by Jill McCabe Johnson The thud of a suitcase upstairs, sink faucet turned on and off, a muffled voice lilting in question. As I lie awake in our bed and breakfast, the sounds of life—of other’s lives—hold comfort. They inhabit sequestered rooms, where unmasked breath can warm the nooks and pockets. Their voices curve around […]
by Chelsea L. Cobb The clink of the handcuffs reminds me of my daughter’s laugh. The sun is hanging low in the sky behind masses of clouds. We watch as it stretches across an expanse of pale gray. My daughter’s head is thrown back, curls just like her mother’s dropping down the back of her […]
by Ana Michalowsky Ten Practical Suggestions Skyline Cemetery, 2019 from Never the Same: Coming to Terms with the Death of a Parent by Donna Shuuman Get the Information You Need You may be surprised at the healing that can take place, not just for you, but for others who are keeping secrets or have held […]
by AC Dobell I want to steal them all,or own the rights to themlike an art collector. Pluck them one by oneoff the screens in Times Square,watch them disappearfrom the sides of highways. I will spare only “Farm Fresh Eggs”& the “Free Firewood” signsbecause I am feeling generous. I will leave up empty billboards& screens […]
by Haley Bell Keane On my way to work, a brown ibis walking in the grass.I almost pull over to ask about its feathering—do ibis havebrown plumage? A juvenile, maybe, or just some other bird—which birds look like ibis? Would itruin this poem if I knew? Would it be a different poem?Do I have the […]
by Dena Igusti TODAY EVIDENCE // HOLDS ITSELF // REASON TO PROVE MY HURT // A SERPENT SHEDS ITSELF // OF AN OLD SKIN // FORGETS WHAT IS LEFT BEHIND // I WANT TO REMOVE // CELLS, DEAD, GENETIC THAT HANG // OFF MY BODY // HOLD TRACES OF WHAT // WAS DONE TO ME […]
by Grace Wagner What they said: There may be some in this auditorium. There may be some here today that will be homosexual in the future. There are a lot of kids here. There may be some girls here that will turn lesbian. We don’t know. But it’s serious. Don’t kid yourselves about it. They […]
by Kristin Entler Where the bones meet. Right there below the pinkie’s metacarpal line. She knows it is a pearl because the doctors told her so. A baroque pearl, according to her medical charts. Though notations read that this is a best guess. That the only way to know the anatomy of the joint composite […]
by Kris Falcon Thyme shoots, dragon fruit sorbet,the market not marked by season or place.A spigot for pots of chai. Free sun golds.No one will think to look here, a hobbycity with no knobs.You are always seeing faceson tenements with no numbers, in the simple-knuckled branches where parking ends, whereyou picture desires ripen. It’s makrut […]
by Kevin Norwood Marco Island Florida, November 2021 Waves lap cautiously at the shore, where a one-legged sandpiper hops and pecks at biofilm shimmering in mid-morning sun. We step carefully around and overthe morning’s wide swath of shells, mindful of our bare feet; stooping here and there to pick up specimens I will cradle in […]
by Abigail Chang Yellow-morning with too-heavy sun. Feeling sick from lethargy and not enough oranges. A mother dialing back your fingers splashing them quiet and brown. All the trees praying down at your porch.The sound of water. Eating citrus from a bowl. Light. […]
by Kristin Gallagher This August, after three semesters of seeing other humans only through Zoom squares, I went back to campus and discovered just how difficult it is to recognize people who are wearing masks. Prior to returning, I had spent much of the last eighteen months looking exactly like the image in Standing In […]
by Melody Serra Accessible File *Image: A New York Times clipping of “Patricia Lockwood’s First Novel Reaches for the Sublime, Online and Off” by Merve Emre, Feb. 16, 2021. Melody Serra’s passion is teaching and empowering others by sharing what she has learned. She helped launch an arts and crafts program at a children’s hospital […]
by Daniel M. Mendoza This past Sunday, the city announced a parade to celebrate the grand opening of Fanatics Hunting and Fishing Gear where Motherclucker’s Chicken Shack once operated before the incident residents collectively call “The Burning” occurred. Motherclucker’s was not open very long when it became obvious to all that it would rake in […]
by Courtney Clute Did you know that due to the trillions and trillions of stars and planets out in the universe, it’s mathematically certain that there is some sort of intelligent life out there? But why haven’t my kind come to Earth to get me? Every night when the moon pokes through the dark sky, […]
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