I Needle My Grief, Tongue to Rotten Tooth by Ashley Mallick
climb into Mama’s corpse and pullthe flooded shores of her together.Realize this body is mine waiting, chin tuckedover the lanes of skin rocky with thread and hole.Her breasts mold against me, the crests of her nippleshollow pools swallowing my own.Jump, squirm toe into toe, remembershe told me I was safe with her,straighten the armor of … Continue reading I Needle My Grief, Tongue to Rotten Tooth by Ashley Mallick
Two Poems by Melissa Gill
Persephone’s Lamet I nuzzle my pointed nose against versed violets, a patch of giddy flowers, touched by the sun’s golden threads. My fingers wrap around emerald stems, hugging their pedicels like a wine glass. A tickling breeze stirs sleeping magpies, rattling a still forest, whispering in my veins. Gusts of wind steal leaves, balding my … Continue reading Two Poems by Melissa Gill
This Could Be Anywhere in the World by Robert Ball
As Alex walks through the glowing embers of the burning building, she checks her phone to be certain it’s actually on fire. Do people know I’m here? she wonders while clearing her complexion of any ash or debris. Her phone lies in wait at the end of her arm, ready to assist her in any … Continue reading This Could Be Anywhere in the World by Robert Ball
Teddy and Roosevelt by Steven Simoncic
They call it Friends Group. But there are no friends, and there is no group. Just me, a state-funded Social Worker, and another sixth grader the kids call Sweaty Teddy. We sit in a converted cinderblock office between the furnace and the chapel and listen to the muffled sounds of the rest of the middle … Continue reading Teddy and Roosevelt by Steven Simoncic
Stay by Shanna Merceron
We had saved the curtains for last. I spent the day with my family, condensing our small home into small boxes, and now I stood in our foyer assessing what was left to be done, our belongings stacked in boxes like a cardboard castle, threatening to tumble down around me. I was going to miss … Continue reading Stay by Shanna Merceron
Coming Over to Your Side Now by Derek Thomas Dew
A boy who starred in some movies killed himself this last weekend. Nothing is as gloriously true and self-mythologizing As saying aloud I arrived at the train station. It’s not the motherly bulb blue across the door. It’s not the burnt streets named after saints named after streets. Out here the night air is … Continue reading Coming Over to Your Side Now by Derek Thomas Dew
Bloodmeal No. 3 by Taylor Card
“Don’t bother,” the pregnant mother ticks grunt in the layered mush of leaves and dead flowers beneath the birth-bush. “You’re better off starving to death then living as a one-hoster. Time spent doesn’t pay off the pain of loss.” The mothers each lay between two and eight thousand eggs, and then they die. *** After … Continue reading Bloodmeal No. 3 by Taylor Card
Ghosts by Emily Dolan
I. They live in the whites of my eyes and the thud of my feet against blacktop; Some days they’re my hips my breath my swallow; the traffic light stuck on yellow revolving door and inhales before goodbye a sturdy trunk kissing flimsy front bumpers; Some days they’re stuck in the teeth of the people … Continue reading Ghosts by Emily Dolan
Two Poems by Michelle Brooks
Household Poisons The afternoons are the worst, the brightness not fading fast enough when you have gone nowhere and seen no one. You when the past threatens to break linger in the valley of dry bones your heart. You scroll the channels on Sirius, certain there’s something better than the Grateful Dead station that has … Continue reading Two Poems by Michelle Brooks
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