John Coleman Bennett Taghairm #11: Manhunt Ends without Man It may be the only outcome allowed us now / Even if apprehended, the headline might well state the same: give us this day, our daily dread / All eyes alert…
Holly Karapetkova Passing Through When the doctor told me there was no longer a heartbeat I refused to believe her, refused the D&C, my body a boat without a rudder and still I trusted it to find the way. I…
Corey Miller Another Round For Venus Thrash When I was homeless I slept with a hammer In my hands gripped like a driver Ready to cross lanes Building bones unattended I set out rusty nails in The lockless doorway A…
Caitie Young the tomato’s columella resembles the crucifix the tomato’s columella resembles the crucifix in my grandmother’s jewelry box surrounded by a bright red spit moat like velvet, I tell jokes at her death bed and brush the fading browns…
Alexander Pepple The Fisherman’s Widow — for B V P She’s found their shore without him there. Delving into the roar, she let saltwater pour on head hollows, loss’ dialect ebbing in and out. Her lot of days, of…
Adam Tavel Wolves in the Maze Dew-dazed in fog that floats through walls of trellised ivy, walls unclimbable and thrice my height, I wake again, shivering. The maze all ways a darker green, sky polished onyx, shadow-grasses thickening the deeper…
Jonathan Moskaluk Sixteen Stitches Grade three was my last at Airport Elementary— a low, L-shaped school near the base. Everything was arranged into rows: the military houses, the bus lineup where I fought that older boy in the mud,…
John Brantingham Francisco Goya's The Disasters of War: The Beds of Death My dead stand with me to look at depictions of Goya’s dead, lumps under blanket, who have been waiting for the respect of the grave. My dead don’t…
Hibah Shabkhez House, Haunted By House My smiles of welcome faltered long ago. Like the others in my row, I glisten Still. I gleam of prosperity. But—my Garden is watered with the tears that flow From the eyes of stooping…
Ra’Niqua Lee A Balm for the Body In memory of Tamir Rice For now, we hold down this quiet sunset trail, inside the city park after green glow swamps the rooftops, and you kiss me wet. Kiss me black along…