I Wish I Was a Riot Grrrl // Jadey Holcomb
Can I drink Cherry Bomb
lipstick, chew fishnets for dessert?
Press your lips to mine, fill me -
bones and all - with your smoke.
Sign Off // Ellie Snyder
While out at Bullman’s Pizza with Ty and Caroline
to celebrate the job offer my mother watched
her most recent ex-husband arrive with a woman
The Coast (A Diary Entry) // Cole Forrest
miss the lake back home
so I drove to the ocean
mussels always taste like the waters they’re from
Roxy’s Heaven // Cole Weiss
They have boarded up the place, emptied out the popcorn machines, and the carpet stinks of butter and mud as it is torn from the flooring.
What’s Human // Thomas Higgins
When a cat comes to lay at your feet
you never ask why, but you do
hold still for as long as you possibly can
If a Plant Dreams // Zixiang Zhang
the ground
into being, what does that say about farming?
For the Student Who Told Me Their Grandmother Died… Twice // Ezra Fox
They tell you grief comes with permissions,
a hall pass, an extension, a moment's reprieve.
Deliberate Displays of Unease // Hallie Fogarty
I’m trying to get into a life of hedonism
but I honestly skew more towards prude.
B & B // Kathryn Reese
I find him in the kitchen making sandwiches, as men do, not with marmalade but with mandarins.
Love Poem for the Neoliberal Age // Michael Conner
I don’t want to be radicalized by terror.
I want to feed mourning doves
from the palm of my hand in spite of it.
Mud and Lotus // Aaron Lelito
Mud and Lotus
Reading passages in the back seat
in a parking lot
after dark.
Objective Truths // Liam Strong
like any fable your story
begins with a cup of soup
signifying goodness. positivity. as in:
the audience is prepared
for an unhappy ending.
Accidental Summoning, Paris Metro // Ella Grim
before I was told the unspoken rule
about not looking people in the eyes,
you were there on the bench at Oberkampf
Self-care Saturday // Harley Chapman
Self-Care Saturday
My knowing-better loops elbows
with fuck-it-I-don’t-care
& we choose a linen dress
that shows the silhouette of our ass
Help Wanted // Glen Armstrong
Can you help me find somebody to help me?
Somebody to love? Somebody to fix
a sink who won’t overcharge me? Enlarge
me? Make love to me as if waxing a car?
Two Poems // Caitlin Johnson
"Diorama of A Life I Never Lived"
"How I Got Rid of My Mississippi Accent"
Spirits and Divine Forces // Devon Balwit
I’ve got the God-eye and shit,
he said in his ashwagandha t-shirt.
The Fig Tree // Maya Jacyszyn
We have figs this year
leading up to the weeks of your passing.
All my life, I knew trees that were barren,
ever since you planted them.