Stopping by the Tattoo Parlor on an August Evening

by Meg Day

Whose hands are these I think I know.
In my pants, in the neon glow
of the THRASHER sign above

the toilet, summer is just beginning
to swelter. “No Hands” is …

The Lake Will Wait

by Jill Mceldowney

I know it scares you when I say I’m not afraid to die.

Still, you go on listening,
as birds plummet into the grass—fortune
teller, pharmacist, archangel, swan—

who taught me …

home will come when heaven slums will king her queen

by Rashaad Thomas

Mother woke
before early, daily
tired Black
and white uni-
form sore feet
dish rag hands
cooked mornings
for her family
powdered her cheeks
with Aunt Jemima,
and applied Mrs. …

Sleepless Night #33

by Sarah J. Sloat

“Sleepless Night #33” is one of a series of visual poems combining pages of a Dutch novella with collage. I wanted the poem found on each page to represent the …

retreat

by Rukhsar Palla

quick recoil as heatwave
tries to coax me
my bedroom, a sun-sluiced
temple

outside, maulvis
and bootleggers
cross paths
crisp, orange sky
waxy dawn
rising behind clouds
sister syncs the color

The Tale of the Uncorrupted Body of St. Sebastian of the Carts

by Jeffrey Thomson

human body, silver, glass

el Templo de San Francisco, Puebla, Mexico

When Sebastian was told not to give his cloak away—
he was constantly giving away wealth (his last loaf

of bread, …

Garden Divination

by Catherine-Esther Cowie

A miracle, my aunts and mother chorus—
Grandma’s up and about frying fish,
singing old hymns.

The last hurrah, Uncle whispers in my ear.
We’re on the porch looking out at …

Song of Destruction / The Halation Effect

by Erika Meitner

the Tappan Zee of my childhood blown up today after
an inclement weather delay—the wingspan of that bridge,

its steel body carrying everyone always over the Hudson
to the Jersey …

I Could See Horses

by Kathleen McCracken

My father’s voice
was Utah copper, honeysuckle gold.
Fine-tuned. Viola, not violin.

A radio voice. First pilot calm
air traffic controller
confident. Cargo in the hold.

His local intonations laced with faraway

by Airea D. Matthews

“Inherited Divide” is a part of a series of redacted historical texts and photographic palimpsests in conversation with the ideas and the physical text of 18th-century Scottish economist Adam Smith’s …

etymology of a blouse

by Matty Layne Glasgow

to wear a man out
a floral top pressed to his skin
by a silken breeze

weather brings them closer:
bees emerge
from the soft petals of his chest

to thread each …

In This Country

by Octavio Quintanilla