1. I am watching you get sick. The whites of your eyes are becoming yellow yolks; cheeks hang like grocery bags. You make diets of …
How I Got Red Hair as a Child by Malaika King Albrecht
The first ghost I met said he could extinguish me like a candle flame. A single gust, and I’d be gone. I …
Ode to White by Melanie Faith
Go-go boots. After Dorianne Laux Satin blouse. Dining hall porcelain cradling oolong. Garbage liner. Woven handles on a handbag. Zigzags on an auntie’s …
Losing It by Joy Beshears
We were wild and determined that night, me sixteen, firm and flowering, needing to be loved. He was just some guy from school, looking older …
Birth Poems by Joseph Mills
The 1799 birth certificate has a poem in its design. We read it, admire the art, and then my daughter asks, “Daddy, what’s my birth …
Ab initio by Janet Dale
Surrounded by darkness, the girl with hopeful eyes pressed ahead toward wavy lines shimmering in the narrow distance. Whirling and dancing, the lights reminded her …
Butterflies, Saskia by Corey Mesler
Butterflies, Saskia are hard to catch, your small legs leaping, your will are not sufficient. They fly, their silvery …
Traffic Jam, Butterfly by Joy Beshears
You flutter past my passenger-side window, bouncing through turbulence, wings luminous: a velvet Elvis under black light, collar glowing, satin lamb chops rising and falling …
Untitled by Curtis Dunlap
I sometimes think we are like a knotted pumpkin, or a twisted and misshapen bed of autumn squash, beautiful in our imperfections. …