by Jonathan Everitt Self-portrait from Unnamable Year How often do we not know whatto call a thing until the aftermath?Once, I melted in someone’s mirror,heart a hot rock, heavy in my throat.Presence flipped to absence flapjack-fast.Sheets thunder-rumpled suddenlyby July’s overblown unstable air.Of course there was a downpour.We need reasons to stay alone. To playthe saddest […]
Tag: miami
by Alex Braslavsky BRINK I’m talking about the size of my grilledcheese on Valentine’s Day in 2022.I’m bleeding every month. Mencan wear as many goose puffers as they want.In a single day, I have wasted so many darts.A pom-pom appears on the ottoman. In a trice, after orbiting the womb,I was begging for never. I […]
by Maslen Bode Ward 11:53pm sometimes I watch pornwhere the woman isan object andthe man looksmad there isusually a womanand a manI am surprisednot to have morematches on hingearen’t I in New York Cityin the porn I watch the woman moansthe man seemslike he’s losing his virginitya man on hinge asksmy favorite three albumsand I’m […]
after Denise Duhamel’s “MY STRIP CLUB” by Aaron DeLee MY GRINDR after Denise Duhamel’s “MY STRIP CLUB“ In my Grindrthe guys show upbaring grinsand hard-boundbooks they nimbly fingeropen as bottles of roséand buttons on cardigans.When the conversation’s litthey lick their thumbsand flurry a fan of pages to favorite passages––they’re so poignant.They excitedly exclaimhow close they […]
by Meriden Vitale While sitting at the temple I’m reading a stirring obituary that ends with a warning. Jane isolated herself from her friends and eventually hung herself from the bookshelf in her apartment. The sister she hated got everything. Write a legally binding will to prevent this. Overheard: she was sharing her vulnerability. She […]
by JaLeah Hedrick Wife of Cain Oh motherless thing, first of us to beerased. Not even Eve with her cloutcould keep your name in the Book.You wandered (an animal) into that exurbof Eden. How did they make you human first?Wash you in the water of heaven, rinse awaythe scent of earth, that you could be […]
by Esther Ra self-portrait without a mirror tears form small, glossy patches on the poolof my skirt remind me how small is my sorrow after long stillness my body hums its tuneless& squeaking refrain kiln-dried spruce pianoin need of touch to make music your mouthteaches me the shape of my own measuresthe size of my yearn & the library […]
by Aysha Mahmood Directions Cling to me. Now, coil and squeeze, claw out my muscles,crunch out my bones, carve your name into my femur, digyour teeth deep into my thigh, make my skin sweat, foamat the mouth, growl and howl and devour – be rabid about it –rip out my nerves and swallow me whole, […]
by Benjamin Favero our mother a landscape we stay to paint our mothera landscape her stretch marks tree trunks ash and chestnutclouds bellied over her hands creased with peaks we hopethey grow in perfect varicose vines draped from roots to ankledeep as her womb of salt brine her ribs flared to cliffs againsta crested tide […]
by Matthew Williams Suburban Murmursa grandmother lifts her hands to catch the laughing child fields of orange poppies name our naked flanks running she plucks and eats the summer from bushes in the backyard tall as a robin my father stands at the roadside holding an unlit cigarette a woman hangs a white sheet in […]
by Kenneth Chacon Eucharist I once knew a manwho met Godin a crater on the moon. He fed me the bonesof his fingers & told methe crown of the earth restedat my feet in the floor. The armies of mensharpen knives.They fasten armorto beasts, bladescurved to the exactnoose of a neighbor’s neck. I saw the […]
by Tali Rose West Marlboros at Sunset I’ve started smoking again. Not a whole lot—I’m not a chain smoker or anything—but I like to have a reason to stand on my balcony overlooking the apartment pool and watch the sky. There’s this moment each day when the sun’s setting, just a second before the horrible […]
by A. Molotkov Transfusion 1. Sarah The smell of rot is so pervasive it adheres to the inside of my nose and mouth. I force myself to ignore it. Impossible. The horizon is interrupted by the red glow of forest fires. The other woman’s face, too, is tinted red. She’s walked with me for a […]
by Christa Rohrbach The Other Side of a Fourth-Place Medal You are 18 months old when your first hairs sprout. Your mother is ecstatic when she sees them: three tiny, fair, and thin little hairs that were somehow able to pierce through the smooth porcelain of your scalp. She thinks maybe you will stop being […]
by Kris Norbraten They dragged the doll into the hot shower to get it back to life. Some semblance of life. It wasn’t exactly a doll or wasn’t supposed to be. It was supposed to be something more. Randi’s bare feet squeaked on the acrylic shower bottom. She’d gotten herself wedged into the stall, no […]
Categories
A Word Flows Between Us
by Vimla Sriram A Word Flows Between Us When the word Heathen barrels past the street and lands at my feet, I already know its intended for me even if it hangs unclaimed suspended like molecules of mist before the averted eyes of the regulars at the transit center. * Among the more palatable meaning of Heathen […]
Categories
The Sun is Down
by Randy Smith The Sun is Down The nandina’s briolette-cut leaves and conical white flowering spires paste their dreamy selves against the night in a spellbound collage. Collage meaning a jumbled collection of impressions, events, and styles, from French meaning “to glue.” Night is a pastiche of memory, even when it is the […]
by Ellie Gomero Chen Chen is a writer, teacher and editor his second book, Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency, is available from BOA Editions and Bloodaxe Books (UK). A finalist for a Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize and a best book of 2022 according to the Boston Globe, Electric Lit, NPR, and others, it has also been named […]
by Ellie Gomero Rudy Francisco is one of the most recognizable names in Spoken Word Poetry. He was born, raised and still resides in San Diego, California. At the age of 21, Rudy completed his B.A in Psychology and decided to continue his education by pursuing a M.A in Organizational Studies. As an artist, Rudy Francisco is […]
by Madison Whatley Peter Balakian is the author of several collections of poetry, including Ozone Journal (2015), winner of the Pulitzer Prize, and Ziggurat (2010), which wrestles with the aftermath and reverberations of 9/11. Gulf Stream Managing Editor, Madison Whatley, met with him in Miami to discuss his latest book, No Sign (2022). Their conversation has been edited for […]
by Rosa Sophia Elgin Jumper is a Seminole poet and artist whose poetry collection, Nightfall, was published by the American Native Press Archives and Sequoyah Research Center, University of Arkansas at Little Rock. His work was recently presented in a documentary from Seminole Media Productions entitled “Elgin Jumper’s Colorful Journey,” which premiered at the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki […]
by Travis Cohen Alexandra Chang is the author of Days of Distraction (Ecco/HarperCollins, 2020) and was recently selected as a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Honoree, chosen for the impact her debut and future works promise to have on the literary landscape. Her forthcoming collection of short stories, Tomb Sweeping, is set to be […]
by Madison Whatley Victoria Chang’s forthcoming book of poems, With My Back to the World, will be published in 2024 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux and Corsair Books in the U.K. Her most recent book of poetry, The Trees Witness Everything, was published by Copper Canyon Press and Corsair Books in the U.K. in 2022 and was named one of […]
by Ellie Gomero and Cathy Almeciga Sandra Cisneros is an award-winning Mexican American poet, short story writer, novelist, essayist, performer, and artist. Best known for her debut novel House on Mango Street, her work has garnered numerous awards, including NEA fellowships in both poetry and fiction, a MacArthur Fellowship, and national and international book awards. […]
by Trey Rhone Kemi Alabi is the author of Against Heaven (Graywolf Press, 2022), selected by Claudia Rankine as the winner of the 2021 Academy of American Poets First Book Award. Their conversation with Gulf Stream poetry reader Trey Rhone at the 2022 Miami Book Fair is below: TR: So, Kemi, could you give me […]
by Madison Whatley Anni Liu is a poet, essayist, translator, and editor. She is the author of Border Vista (Persea, 2022), her debut poetry book. Gulf Stream Managing Editor Madison Whatley’s interview with her at the 2022 Miami Book Fair is below. MW: Thanks for coming. AL: Of course. MW: How does it feel to […]
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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