Mother, did I make you proud?
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Mermaid Tears by John Poch
He cannot fathom the stained glass of their eyes, / one girl Mediterranean blue and one a simple hazel / of the island colors here, a hillside mix / of stone pine green and brown volcanic soil.
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Do You Eat Monkey Brains? by Arvin Ramgoolam
What did the future have in store for me when my only cultural touchstones were Apu from The Simpsons, the evil Mola Ram, and the village of starved, tattered clothed Indians offering the hero their last bits of rice?
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A Normal Interview with Khaty Xiong by Jer Xiong
A lot of things have changed me as a poet since 2015, but what these changes have ultimately revealed is that I cannot live without poetry. I need it to commune with the living, to commune with the dead, and to meet the many burdens of grief that come with being alive.
Read MoreAmerikan Swamp by Sonya Bilocerkowycz and Chris Stevens
Recall how deep the roots that gulp this ground. There is no draining what’s already drowned.
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Reclaiming a Name by Negesti Kaudo
For years, I’d pronounced my own name wrong because it was easier, it fit into other people’s mouths better. My mom wants me to embody my name. 'I gave you a strong name,' she says.
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Fountain Square by Emma DePanise
Face-up underwater gazing up bright, the rippled / branches were always more mesmerizing in motion
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Two Poems by Brett Hanley
You found a map, / but someone spilled brine all over it, / and you can't read the names of the places / you're supposed to go.
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My Mother in the Night by Jane Medved
she has disconnected / from earth, and is not responsible / for me. / She is shrinking / but too hard to lift.
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Seams by Rachael Inciarte
i am obsessed with things in pieces / forever finding my fingers inside the seams / ripping into them because they beg to be open ed up
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Birds of Prey by John Sibley Williams
Just another slow-moving dawn / & birds of prey break it like bones
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Much Too Real To Ever Disappear: Sound Affects @ 40 by Joe Bonomo
Sound Affects has never left my head. When I listen, the music washes over me in sensations, in snatches of images and phrases, singsong/singalong melodies competing against slashing guitars.
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Chicory by Pascha Sotolongo
My father can be very beguiling. I don’t want to get too drawn into his bizarre world. I feel weird enough as it is, without the chicory: Cuban in a town with no other Cubans, gangly, smart, hairy, socially awkward, and I’m never bored.
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Make a Wish by Jean Synodinos
Words carved with an urgent affection that seems everlasting but always fades when stripped and sanded to dust by a nameless janitor over summer vacation. Words like these: Julie, I wish this was enough. All the love I’ve left in this world is yours.
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Invasive Species by Sara Moore Wagner
And there they are, our little / babies in the pond moss wetland / of the yard, all blonde amidst / the fallen limbs, the jagged lines / of timber.
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A Normal Interview with torrin a. greathouse, by Angel Gonzales
I often know — or think I know — that I have found the right language for relating an experience when the act of speaking a poem out loud makes me shake.
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Hairy Govinda by Kathy Anderson
This old yoga lady next to me throws her legs up in the air and farts. That’s okay by me.
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The Funeral by Billy Hallal
I’d never been alone with a girl in the house (or anywhere, really)—I was pretty sure it was against some parental rule. But so was getting drunk at a wake. And besides, Celeste was my cousin. No cause for suspicion there.
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The Overview Effect by Lindsey Drager
Put every person on earth into space. This way they’ll see our orb for what it is, a brittle particle in a vast and infinite blank nothing. We’ll send one person at a time. Everything has more meaning when you’re alone.
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Some Theories of Time Travel by Malka Gould
I’m not sure when I lost the barriers I had so carefully cultivated, when I found myself like some kind of throbbing nerve in city after city. Kissing strangers and looking for friends, and answers, and places to sleep.
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