Poetry

Featured image for ““Stewarding the Succulents,” “Purple Cabbage,” and “The Sum Over Histories” ”

“Stewarding the Succulents,” “Purple Cabbage,” and “The Sum Over Histories” 

Julie Benesh

The houseleeks need a midwife
sometimes, their cabbage-babies
breaching, the stolon-cord refusing

to break. I don’t perform Caesareans;
I merely wiggle a baby foot; help
it make contact with the rocky earth.
Featured image for ““Full Flower Moon,” “Stilling Point,” and “Offering””

“Full Flower Moon,” “Stilling Point,” and “Offering”

Steven Bucher

I almost fell back asleep
Tossed and snugged down soft
Amid dream disquiet
Impenetrable
Implacable

Day’s debris and remnant dream
Echoes distant
Once found teeming
Featured image for ““Salt and Light” and “Then, Myself””

“Salt and Light” and “Then, Myself”

Adalain Sans

we are two blues
convincing the world
distance can look like devotion.

every morning
the sky lowers itself
until sailors swear
it has found the sea.
Featured image for ““In the Doorway, Mother,” “Caveats at Ape Caves,” and “A Certain Kind of Dying””

“In the Doorway, Mother,” “Caveats at Ape Caves,” and “A Certain Kind of Dying”

Nancy Meyer

Your papery lips press mine hungry as a predator’s beak. Our ears brush: hearing aids clack and buzz.

Pull apart
Featured image for ““All the Lost,” “Autography,” and “Crookedest Street in the World””

“All the Lost,” “Autography,” and “Crookedest Street in the World”

David Meischen

Upon waking, you rise into the almost-no-longer dark and step into clothing rendered black and white by the dusting of light at the heavily shaded window.

Upon waking, Carat stretches and yawns, curls into her fur-lined basket, embraces sleep again.
Featured image for ““Passing Spark” and “The Wheel””

“Passing Spark” and “The Wheel”

CM Pickard

I recall light spilling through
     double-story windows;
alabaster walls and high picture rails
    of the silk flowers on a grand piano,
petals fixed in perpetual bloom
in a space confined by rigid lines
s w e p t   aside by a melody shouting freedom,
lifting bodies, loosened breath
Featured image for ““Odd or Even,” “50% Chance of Rain,” and “Moon””

“Odd or Even,” “50% Chance of Rain,” and “Moon”

Shaomei Yu

Invisible waves swept through mountains and ridges
Red blinking eyes
Restless in the sky

We heard the humming
Of the fickle algorithms
We engaged with