Poetry

Appendectomy

by Alexandra Ozols.
“…so I worry and know that everything / is not fine which sends my heart galloping / like a horse turned wild by gunshots”

Cleaver

by Sandra Dolores Gómez Amador.
“I do not think about flesh anymore, but if I did, / I would tell you about its adoration / for cruelty.”

issue 38 2020 Prize Winners
“Never Send…”

Having left work early this spring / afternoon, I feel no rush / to be anywhere but here and now, / even waiting at this reluctant light,

House Staff

I don’t remember if I ever cleaned my house. I’m sure we / never heard birdsong. Some cried. Some of us got quite thin.

The Day After Memorial Day

The clutch of white peonies I hold by my side are floppy / with dew dripping down my leg. / I am late too.

Power and Light

She’d toss a quilt made from our outgrown skirts / over the faded couch and lie there, / holding the ache, rocking it to sleep…

How Humans Came to Loneliness

They woke to the primal sway / of grass, cold fire. Here was // a light rain falling from the eyelid / of the sky.

Moon-face

The doctor clicks his pen and says it’s just a phase. / My fat moon-face comes second to the x-rays // he pulls from a folder labeled with my room number. / I’m taking 75mgs of Prednisone a day.

Without Fear of Being Burned

I hear you just beyond reach / of the flickering light of / the TV, which you’ve kindled / as a kind of controlled burn