Poetry

  • Issue 38,  Poetry

    All My Polemics: An Outline

    October 23, 2024 / 
    Art by the author

    By Jenna Cardinale

    The stretched weight of a heavy
    bag questions our unbalanced commitment
    to sustainability.

    An occasional table need not
    display faded and framed photos
    or a defined narrative.

    A hangover can hang
    over a whole day and
    we should discuss fairness.

    The funeral parlor passes
    out promotional pens to encourage
    brand loyalty.

                Just place your memories inside
                this deluxe lacquered box.
                There is a choice
                of colors.

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  • Issue 38,  Poetry

    Two From Daniel Felsenthal, “Out of Time/Admiration” and “The Beach is a Terminal You Leave When You Die”

    October 23, 2024 / 
    Art by Andy Mister

    by Daniel Felsenthal

    Out of Time/Admiration

    The toughest subject
    to write on is time
    Everyday I’m trying

    I just run bone dry

    Ba-dum where’s
    That hi-hat?
    A Hoover flag
    Waves bare
    In the pocket
    Cue drums

    For the meantime—
    That soft word
    For nervous hours
    Put to pasture
    We learn methods
    To enjoy these
    Summer strolls as
    Cretinous wild
    Childs starry and
    Scotch-drunk.

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  • Issue 38,  Poetry,  Translation

    “Sabbath” by Alfonsina Storni Translated from the Argentinian Spanish by Ulyses Razo

    October 23, 2024 / 
    Art by Adelaide Snow




    I rose early & walked barefoot
    Through the halls. I stole to the gardens 
    And kissed the plants. 
    I soaked up the clean breath of the earth,
    Thrown on the grass;
    I bathed in the fountain that green achiras
    Surround. Much later, wet with water,
    I brushed my hair. I perfumed the hands
    With scented serum of sampaguita. Squeamish,
    Fine herons
    Stole blonde shreds from my dress.

    Then I put on my bugle suit, lighter 
    Than the very same gauze.
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  • Issue 38,  Poetry

    Poetry Rubric for Acceptance

    October 23, 2024 / 
    image curtesy of the National Gallery of Art

    by Laine Derr

    Laine Derr holds an MFA from Northern Arizona University and has published interviews with Carl Phillips, Ross Gay, Ted Kooser, and Robert Pinsky. Work has appeared or is forthcoming from The Amistad, J Journal, Full Bleed + The Phillips Collection, ZYZZYVA, Portland Review, Prairie Schooner, and elsewhere.

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  • Issue 38,  Poetry

    Insection

    October 23, 2024 / 
    Art by Bill Wolak

    by Carrie Penrod

     

    The dawn hasn’t yet started to break,
    the light not yet illuminating
    the insects beneath my skin
    I wish to keep

    Hidden.

    The man lying next to me,
    arm over my shifting lungs,
    sleeps as the dead lay
    quiet in their coffins

    forgotten.

    I want to gnaw off my torso,
    to escape his sleeping form––
    and yet I want to remain
    pinned, kept blissfully

    away.

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  • Issue 38,  Poetry

    Making a Name

    October 23, 2024 / 
    Art by Mark Hurtubise

    by Caleb Braun

                I want to get started! I want to cut down the cedar
                and make for myself an everlasting name.
                Gilgamesh, Tablet II: Enkidu was sitting, 159-160

    For weeks now, scattered thunder, flooded plains,
    dry soil shepherding the water still, above.

    Puddles, make-shift lakes: zeros without a figure.

    What would they call me if this shoddy house collapsed
    and I undone by summer storms?

    A scribbler in a rented room.

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