In poetry, our winner is Andy Chen, for his piece “Longing.” This year’s poetry judge was Porsha Olayiwola. Of the poem, she writes: “‘Longing’ manages to instill within its reader the same essence that the poem itself is after. That is, we read this poem overwhelmed in a sense of longing. The ellipses, ending or…
If we were to try to keep this even, or at least find the midpoint in this argument before anyone gets meanwe’d be golden.Let’s say when you said maybe we’re not meant to be with just one person I had responded with – what do you mean by being with someone – what do you mean by meant but instead, I swallowed the plumb…
Much of the earth has been eradicated before. I’m not going to stay awake and think about that. Sleep is important. Sleep is essential. Tomorrow I’ll be groggy and off-balance and there’s the possibility of falling and breaking a bone. I must not stay awake and think of the chained, the bombed-out, the starving. After all, love exists, people…
When I look down at my belly, the line therelooks back. Straight as a snake measuring its prey.Twice I’ve watched my midline muster stripeand thicken. Become open parenthesis, primed to holdthe past tense on display. What kind of magic bloomsa scar before the skin ruptures? I continue to findthe single wings of nine-spotted moths, monarchs.Stained…
I try not to usea pen that’s too special,writing insteadwith whatever’s at hand, in this case a penfrom George and Ken’sCollision, whereI had my hood repaired. After paying the deductible,I wasn’t leaving therewithout a pen,so I slipped this one into my pocketas George—or was it Ken?—printed the receipt.It writes quite nicely, gliding across the pageof…
How did the people realizethe steeple needed repair? They prayed below for what stood above.They hired a steeplejack to go and see. Before descending he took a lookat the towers of Boston to the north and skyward at contrails of flights.He paused to consider the damage. They prayed against the worst they could imagine.They imagined…
You’re kept in capsules on the bathroom counter, a synthetic strain of vitamin A, sealedfor potency. Your purpose is to shieldthe face from signs of aging. Over-the-counter lacks the power existing in medical grade— though too much, over time, can blur the vision, incite a kind of skin-peeling conditionor frail the bones. Your purest form betrayed the man who…
Before your birth, I marked you as my own,the way I marked your mother before hers.Inscribed on every cell of every bone,the standard of my family never blurs.I coil between the makings of your bedand in the small hours whisper you awake.I poison every sentence in your headand all those comforts other people take.Eat salmon, buy a doodle, down the pillsthe doctor tenders…
Translated from the Spanish by Pablo Medina A man and a woman walk down the streetlaughing. They make plans.They had a grand time in the hotel where they made loveand they laugh, make another date for tomorrow. Life is wonderful.Tomorrow he’ll be laid out in a funeral home one hourbefore their tryst (the scaffoldingbroke loose…
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