Poetry

Featured image for ““Cancer: A Paean,” “Legacy,” and “The Three Nuns: A Contrapuntal for Voice and Canvas””

“Cancer: A Paean,” “Legacy,” and “The Three Nuns: A Contrapuntal for Voice and Canvas”

Olga Dugan

Abditive—that’s you, sneaky sniper, taking us out more than a hundred types of ways. A name change per each organ, tissue, cell you invade…bronchus, lung, prostate, colon, uterus… From the shade you surface Read more.…
Featured image for ““Old Bookstores,” “World,” and “Spoor””

“Old Bookstores,” “World,” and “Spoor”

Andrew Field

are sad places, where the dead wait to be loved. A teenager in the poetry section sits on a red milk carton, her black lipstick like an opera, pulling one book down after another in a frenzy of polite quiet. Read more.…
Featured image for ““To the Dead Man Living Inside My Knee” and “What I Thought Was Pollution Was Really God””

“To the Dead Man Living Inside My Knee” and “What I Thought Was Pollution Was Really God”

Jamie L. Smith

A careless dictator, most days I do not think of you unless you protest, beating your fists against the walls of my flesh when I’ve danced you too hard or damp February clenches your teeth into a knot of hot fury. Please Read more.…
Featured image for ““If These Walls Could Talk,” “Images of Night,” and “Overheard on a Train””

“If These Walls Could Talk,” “Images of Night,” and “Overheard on a Train”

Russell Willis

If only these walls could talk we wonder What might goad their reluctant tongues? Wondered more often by those who would be betrayed or wounded by the small talk or gloating of these walls Read more.…
Featured image for ““Immortality in a Song,” “Meditation,” and “Repose””

“Immortality in a Song,” “Meditation,” and “Repose”

Hannah Baker

The song begins— the first beat calls forth an aroma of strawberry syrup from your vape as its smoke dances with the music, past my nose, and out through the windows of your 2012 red Toyota Camry. Read more.…
Featured image for ““Farewell, My Lovelies,” “A Chameleon Named Silencio,” and “The Unwoke Wizard of Oz””

“Farewell, My Lovelies,” “A Chameleon Named Silencio,” and “The Unwoke Wizard of Oz”

Robert Eugene Rubino

Good riddance, alcohol. Good riddance mary-jane. Good riddance hashish and uppers and downers. Good riddance Timothy Leary … we hardly knew ye. Good riddance to those bottles of quenching cold ice-cold cottonmouth-inducing beer & ale and those steins of on-tap room-temp Guinness stout — it’s good for you the billboard said and the billboard wouldn’t fib. Read more.…