Elizabeth Ellson there’s a shade of bluethat pulls in with the cloudsover the glacierwhere the ice pushes back against Apollobegs the navy, canary meshing opento give it coveragefrom the rushing of the melt it prefers the greys which protect its coverits vulnerability liesin picture perfecthuman preferencefor a gazewhich glorifies our version of beauty but for […]
Alex Sosebee i. if i’m telling the truth—and i am, this time—every time i look at myself in the mirror i’m looking for someone else. this secret dialect, disguised in broad daylight, selfhood splitin two: perceived and imagined. the gap is so wide it echoes. what ungodly thing i am,and outside of dreams—how? conceive of […]
Ieva Dapkevicius “The city’s name is the same as one of the Ukrainian namesfor Artemisia vulgaris, mugwort or common wormwood.”Etymology of ‘Chernobyl’, O. S. Melnychuk “… and the name of the star is called Wormwood.”Revelations 8:10-11 And the angel’s palm opens, tilts,and from it an absinthe star fallsto the woods,to the rivers, which stand still […]
Ieva Dapkevicius August, and the days seep into dark sand.Hems of lace trail behind each wavethat retreats from the shore, identical,unnumbered. Bramble-month! My thoughts blackenfrom red to ripe to rot amidst your thorns.Dawn arrives wrapped in shawlsof spider-silk fog beaded with dewdrops;dusk brings out spindle-legged shadowsthat stand behind the pines in their vigil,alight against the […]
Damon Stanley After the sculpture by Cleber “Lobo” Machado. Angels, all pistons and ironwork,descending a ladder in unison — it is 4,000 A.D.and distinctions between persons troubleand fade, as, on the way up, one learnedto make distinctions, what it meansto multiply. Once, we dreamed of ladders ornamentedwith ivory feet, with mother-of-pearl,with tortoise-shell, inlaid with stone. […]
Damon Stanley its contours at meetpointsin disarray. Carried off? Delicately,“transported.” The comte d’Angivillerdescribed a prison as a lemniscate,a guard calling out, “Houston, Damon Stanley lives in Columbus, Ohio and has a website at damonstanley.com.
Leela Raj-Sankar after Olivia Muenz Welcome in. Close the door behind you please. I’d like it if you took off your shoes. I just had this carpet cleaned. Last week. Welcome in. This is what will win me the Pulitzer. This is my brain. On calculus. Or on music. You can decide. Both infinite series […]
Jason Kahler 1. Along the fences the men wear camouflage like fashion. Old wagon wheels lean against the posts and fleck white paint. Buckets of carrots for the deer. I like the jerky that hangs in plastic bags from pegs across the front of each general store along M-61, the salt and the smoke, not […]
Leela Raj-Sankar I bruise at loud noises. The skin around my nailsis an ugly, vicious purple. It takes the slightest breezeto send me stumbling. When I raise my wrist tomy lips, my pulse leaks out and settles stickybetween my front teeth. I’m less worried about decaythan I am about the silence that accompanies it.The spaces […]
John Findura I told you I saw a red carand the positions we would sit in When I said that I was lying There was no carand I can’t even pretend our positions I did see a red stain on the bedin the shape of your mouth When you asked me to predict I didThere […]