It's A Long Story by Chelsey Clammer

February 24, 2021

I needed guidance in accepting and claiming my new identity. I needed some education. I needed empowering language.

Two Poems by Madison Rahner

February 24, 2021

Give me Leda with thighs / like bear traps, skull-crushing, ready to rush / the sky on her own wings. Leda who lies / poised, nails polished red on her lush shore.

Epithalamion by Virginia Konchan

February 17, 2021

For you, I sat under a yew tree's shade / for a thousand years and did not twitch: / I ate only lemons amid a welter of fruit.

A Murder of Crows: The Kanye West Conversion

February 17, 2021

Anyhow, Maura chooses ballet for her son because she’s never seen a coon pirouette a la seconde, never seen an Uncle Tom execute consecutive tour jetes. Ballet is safe (thugs don’t twirl), albeit a little effeminate and her husband Marvin would have a fit if he knew.

Glades People by Roxane Gay

February 10, 2021

Tricia loved to talk with her clients. That’s how she judged people.

Warnings by Rebecca Turkewitz

February 10, 2021

We heeded most of the warnings most of the time. But we were runners. And no one told the boys’ team to practice in pairs or avoid wearing headphones at night. Besides, when we ran, who could touch us? We were our own private rooms.

Cosmic Latte by Ron Huett

February 3, 2021

This is my introduction to the word and the last time I will ever speak it against another black person.

Moles by Kellie Rankey

February 3, 2021

The behavior seems instinctual; children first meet their mothers, and then they meet the dirt, and the latter may pull them from the former. There is a connection to dirt and digging and digging and the life to be found in layers. All sorts of reasons to love it, they tell us.

Perennials by Shelley Wong

February 3, 2021

Still, I lose: I cannot even recall/our common silences. The years have transposed/into any year

Belly Heat by Eleanor Howell

January 27, 2021

This was not what she wanted to do with her day. She had meant to spend the afternoon writing a pitch; now she had scramble to protect her body from a mess that she, even in her drunken state, had attempted to prevent.

Looking by Emma Brousseau

January 20, 2021

But the man was jealous of even a peek. He took up my entire sightline that day, hanging half his body out of my eye or running between them to try to block every moment alone, every moment trying to see myself.

Stick After Stick by Joe Griffin

January 20, 2021

We pulled into the yard and sat in the pickup for a moment, idling in park. 'That was a fucking thing,' said Rob in a low tone. I looked at him, nodding in mute reverence.

Six-foot boy by Fay Sachpatzidis

January 20, 2021

as a child / when i couldn't sleep, / i'd slink into my parents' bedroom / and tickle my father's calloused feet

Ghost Child by Danusha Laméris

January 13, 2021

Only he is not my son. / He’s the one I was expecting that season / my belly grew taut as a honeydew.

The Fall by Morgan Riedl

January 13, 2021

The fear of heights is more common in women, but I inherited my fear from my father. He fell out of my life’s orbit when I was 8. I have a hard time safely locating myself in space and time, so I orient myself in relation to others: my father (before he left), my mom (before I left).

Everything Beautifully Sideways by Laura Minor

January 13, 2021

We sit and talk away the coolness of soil / until no one mistakes this for anything else, / and we are just a tangle of luxury in the grass, / a triangle of bodies holding up the sky--