by Saba Zahoor

“Having eaten a slice of life— / nauseating, retching— / unable to digest, / like a gargoyle after a heavy downpour…”

by Daniel Luévano

“You’re an American looking for the one true religion. / Don’t get too excited…”

by PD Hurt

“If you’re reading this, it's already far too late— / i shot in the dark and missed. / It grazed my thoughts—my ideations have / the attention span of a fruit fly.”

by James Redfern

“when paperclip piles start to turn a profit, / genocide will become more attractive / to the average investor, as such endeavors / provide a most-robust rate of return.”

by Tatiana Kent

“you wake up lying on top of your vibrator, it’s maybe 10:30, the sun is shining cruel and white, you take a cold shower, the Keurig rumbles…”

by Rukan Saif

“Data upon data. / A pulsation dizzying my consciousness.”

by Ryan Quinn Flanagan

“I notice a double-sided display near the checkout. / Drink mixers on one side and pregnancy tests on the other. / I show my wife and she laughs. / ‘Well, one usually leads to the other.’”

by Jack Bennett

Little beak inside thin slips / of matted feather / owl in owl in owl in owl… / owl in owl in owl in owl… / owl matryoshka”                                    

owl matryoshka       

by Drew Pissara

“They say, some people leave this place / and move to a higher plane. They say, / there’s someplace worse than this / from which there is no escape. But we / here know there’s nothing better.”

by Akira Damian

“I got in the car./ The city was dark and ordinary. / Both hands on the wheel, / like someone who has finally / stopped apologizing / for what she is.”

by Evelyn Hadassah Kronfeld

“heavy are your lids / as i stumble through / a new story / of catastrophic good taste…”

by Daniel A. Rabuzzi

“The best dreams flow like this, / through the gauze-gaze drift-planes / into the chamber of beginning / to learn about what will be…/…or not.

by Enana Jacob

“A priest in robes shaking / the hand of a homeless man, / a white dog in a baby carrier, / street art vendors and / frazzled pink hair. / These are beacons of summer, / or so it seems to me now.”

by Thao Vu

“three immaculate white ghosts dusting soiled slates / ‍at the station, the wife ghost died of jealousy, a Chinese / ‍the man a Viet, a vile death, holding his own hands / ‍the gates rumbled when baby ghost whispered…”

by Michael Hackney

“The gods have set forth their grand schemes above, / leaving me lost out to sea, / wrecked and unanointed.”

by Bob McAfee

“She has peeled the pomegranate, / eaten some seeds, / rubbed the peel against her loins, / all day /carried the mistletoe in her bra.”

by Cynthia Atkins

“Have you ever heard the sound of a screen door / closing old-timer slow?—Inching madness to the edge / of its seat?— Think of shoes on the wrong feet. / And how fingernails scratch the chalkboard / to test your impulses.” 

by Michael T. Smith

“Nobody said / The zeitgeist was ever fair, / But – / At least we can sell the story wholesale.”

by m.e. gamlem

“The touch of men is met with a wild eyed grimace, the reminder of dead ancestors buried under ancient grounds of the gated communities, skeletons somewhere, fully intact, finger bones clutching their favorite sword.”

by Tobi Alfier

“Today, dusk is a purple sail / sinking at the edge of the world.”