Volume 9, Issue 1
My First Song
I was maybe 5 or 6, / downstairs at my grandma’s house / with the orange 70s carpet / repeating lines I had come up with. / Something of opposites, of ice…
173 pieces
Pieces
Volume 9, Issue 1
Ap-a-ta-pa-tit
Stench lingers beneath my arms / stretching knuckles against smooth white, / it speaks to me, saying—steady, steady. / Filling the hollow of my hips—more,…
Volume 9, Issue 1
Helpline / Hold Music
I fumble with the details like I’m shuffling a pack of cards underwater, awkward and / slow, as rigid certainty gives way to mulch.
Volume 9, Issue 1
Sacred glade
Sacred glade, / the spirits of the past linger here, / whispering voices of dry leaves and / grass that twists about the ankle. / I found her here,…
Volume 9, Issue 1
Twenty Years Since...
Tried to write about that day so many times / Cried in fright into the grey, then the rhymes / Avalanched from my thumbs, wanting to / Pound my fist into…
Volume 9, Issue 1
such a strange day
what a weird day it was / that day / 1. to die like that / 2. when the wind pulled the wings / off flocks of geese / 3. and traffic stopped to watch / 4.…
Volume 9, Issue 1
the field-dressing of a deer
my father gave me this knife / but never taught me how to use it. / I’ve been picking my teeth with it / and cleaning the dirt out from under my…
Volume 9, Issue 1
When they were small
I know better my hands / than my face / they wake my mornings / they bathe and dry my skin / they throw themselves into / the waves of my hair / they…
Volume 9, Issue 1
Flâneuse
The poet Gérald de Nerval strolled with his pet lobster, / Thibault, on a blue silk ribbon-leash, argued / a lobster was no more ridiculous than a dog. /…
Volume 9, Issue 1
Fashion
On the subway, I’m looking at a woman seated across from me, all dressed in pink. / Pink clogs with pink jewels, pink socks, pink pants and shirt, pink…
Volume 9, Issue 1
The Poor Are Always Crossing the Sahara
Poems about James Baldwin / (1924-1987) / Feeling invisible in America / James Arthur Jones Baldwin / Jimmy to his friends, step- / father a preacher,…
Volume 9, Issue 1
Trouble Means You’re Alone
Poems about James Baldwin / (1924-1987) / I want to be an honest man / and a good writer. / He arrived in France / with forty dollars / no savings / no…