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
The Board Meeting The Board Meeting
There was a meeting. They had an agenda. It was time to talk about loving a man in the supermarket, how that might affect sales of imported candy and levels of light in the produce…
Sep 9, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Heather Christle
Drowning Creek Drowning Creek
Past the strip malls and the power plants, out of the holler, past Gun Bottom Road and Brassfield and before Red Lick Creek, there’s a stream called Drowning Creek where I saw the…
Aug 24, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Ada Limón
Celebrate Good Times Celebrate Good Times
The regime is having a birthday party, so we turn off the lights and pretend we’re sick. All night, happy americans honk their horns. We did it! they scream into our window. In the…
Jul 27, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Franny Choi
A Violent End A Violent End
the bears were swiping at the river getting nowhere Look I said to the bears the salmon are all gone because of I pointed that factory upstream What factory they said so I explaine…
Jul 27, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Ben Purkert
What Counts What Counts
First breath, best breath. I don’t mean anything by that. Shale over shale. I concentrate on acts to keep from repeating words in my head. I sit up and copy them in bed. “So, so gl…
Jul 13, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Rae Armantrout
Cortés Burning the Aviaries Cortés Burning the Aviaries
Last night, I let in all the birds. I told my grandmother to stay awhile. I said, stop disguising yourself as wind. You are not the only one who can fly. I told my grandmother to s…
Jul 13, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Monica Rico