25 scenes in which the circumstances did not apply 25 scenes in which the circumstances did not apply
N 1. in the light of a lamppost, a black fence in the background, wearing a long, fabulously well-cut black coat, feet in leather boots, 6’4” over me, he is a pylon in his eyes all…
Nov 11, 2021 / Poems / Radna Fabias
The Request of the Doe The Request of the Doe
The old doe wanted to be witnessed in pain for eternity. Cut and bandaged and then cut up again. Fine, they said. We’ll see how you fare. They took her into the sterile room and co…
Nov 9, 2021 / Poems / Bianca Stone
I Just Chose My Place and Let the Circle Form Around Me I Just Chose My Place and Let the Circle Form Around Me
N behold the Lord a neutron star had been “missing” for 32 years visible light faded gradually over 500 days, then astrophysicists announced they had seen a hot,…
Oct 19, 2021 / Poems / Oliver Baez Bendorf
We Came Here to Get Away From You We Came Here to Get Away From You
Port Townsend, Washington Downhill, a skeleton of an orca suspended: a female beached; belly full, at that time, of seal and fish; the seal and fish full, at that time of poison. T…
Oct 19, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Donika Kelly
In the New Year In the New Year
Sun on my face and the train slips into the tunnel. Dim reflection confronts. Perhaps I am lacking in something substantial like iron, or virtue. How easy it is to hurt someone, ho…
Oct 19, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Natasha Rao
The Changing Hymn (Allegory of the Singing Lover) The Changing Hymn (Allegory of the Singing Lover)
For Mary Rose During the Trouble Years my love sang the same song every day but every day she’d change—slightly—the words One day she sang a song for sweepers and the next day the…
Oct 14, 2021 / Poems / Patrick Rosal
Parable of the Magpie and the Mirror Parable of the Magpie and the Mirror
A certain scientist had a cage, and took a magpie, and put the magpie in the cage. And the magpie’s head and neck were black, and black were its beak and eyes, but the breast and b…
Oct 12, 2021 / Poems / Monica Youn
The Holiness of Degradation The Holiness of Degradation
with a title and a line from Leslie Jamison Anne says, what if you are not sick or bad, what if you are Katie? I know I have to fuck the stories that are fucking me. I think about…
Sep 30, 2021 / Poems / Katie Schmid
SUPER-HUMAN SUPER-HUMAN
Hell, I know my superpower! I stare back at the solo sun & think, I could take you down, right to the cool core if my mother asked it of me, or if I thought my father would wri…
December 3, 1975 December 3, 1975
a golden shovel My mother wakes early to go to church. Dawn redux. Her áo dài is Virgin Mary blue. Her hair is still long, reflecting light. A border control officer filters throug…
Sep 23, 2021 / Poems / Cathy Linh Che