you haven’t cried in yearsnow is not the time to starta fire breathing down your throat and your voice falling three stories hand-sized flakes of paint shreds of paper and ashes in piles and in the airyour own empty bed on fire the night outside filled with starsyou turn to watch the flamesin the black […]

Read More Poetry: “An Orphanage in the Philippines” by Mary Jerzak

Released from formal education, we set out, walked until we came to the edge,made camp where river meets ocean. Determined to come only with questions, we asked, Who are you? Marked swellings and diminutionswhile we waited for an answer,cupped our hands and tasted: in places fresh, others briny. Too wide to swim across.Blue crabs climbed […]

Read More Poetry: “ESTUARY” by Alison Hicks

I. HusbandLaughter has carried usdown this river. Now, it meanders adagio. Once young and in love,we walked these streetswhile neighbors slept, so joyfulmy heart beat in my legs:Assemble! Chasse! We thought the night was ours alone untilwe heard applausefrom a darkened window,like distant rapids. II. Letting goJade river, rushing towardschange, and the mirror gives no answers. How do […]

Read More Poetry: “Threads for a New Robe” by Rachel Landrum Crumble

They made their home within a concrete sanctuary Some adapted appendages and other parts of human skin To better interface with their watery brethren One small girl I noticed had a dorsal fin Another filtered nourishment from a swim These people were the most unusual I have seen And yet to them, their world seemed […]

Read More Poetry: “Aquarium” by S. Rogers Ellis

Keep a few LPs on a shelf in a closet your favorite groups your favorite teenage afternoons with headphones singing so everyone in the house but you can hear. Save them so you can once in a while slip one for its jacket palm hold it by the edges like a child’s face blow the […]

Read More Poetry: “Keep a Few LPs” by John Walser

As light as lonely swaying emptiness, buoying weightlessness all chantlike afloat, the one and only apt appendage, That floats in principle taut right above all the depressed states, revelling in movement for movement’s sake, One’s wildest thoughts and tight-locked bottled up emotions all slide across and dock like dulcet song in glorious homecoming Quite like […]

Read More Poetry: “Reckon Rigorously All!” by Saloni Kaul

The face in the cloud speaks to me. “I see you down there, grinding away. I prefer floating. I prefer drenching.” O Spring, the imagination runs wild! A fine line separates fancy and insanity, like I don’t know. Now it fucking rains. The face in the cloud, darker now, chides me for forgetting my umbrella. […]

Read More Poetry: “Blue-Sky Thinking” by Salvatore Difalco

I sprinkle a plastic cup of salt on the icy, ribboned, lacey, slippery sidewalk. Cold prickles my face. Ice crackles, like laughter and small talk at a gathering party. Then, the sun appears. Pink salt crystals, dissolve, invisible, except on the toe of my left boot—a white streak over the scuffed brown leather. I want […]

Read More Poetry: “Crackle” by Joshua Wetjen