August Contributors
L. Ward Abel, Eva Alter, Michael Borth, Gülen Çelik, Tom Cintula, Dario Cvencek, Mike Ferguson, Blair Hamelink, Daniel Y. Harris, Scott C. Holstad, John Jeffire, Irene Koronas, Courtney Leigh, Özge Lena, Zev Levinson, Thomas M. McDade, Danielle McMahon, KG Miles, Alexis Rhodes, John Sara, Jake Sheff, Travis Shosa, Julian Thumm, Terry Trowbridge, Nate Tulay, Grady VanWright, Philip Venzke, Elana Wolff, and jms xuange
Poetry
August Highlights
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pot summer girl
by Courtney Leigh
“It’s delulu to want everyone to like you / they’re always so ungiving—I want to not give / but to value the remaining fucks I’ve got.”
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joshua lampshade
by Travis Shosa
“Joshua Lampshade has swallowed / a disco ball, it’s a peach pit vessel / of retro kitsch.”
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true cross
by Michael Borth
“It is obvious in the aura of the green light of Honduras / Intersected by the wounds of the martyr, by the mother / Praying silver on the historical hill of the true cross…”
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water girl
by jms xuange
“The water shines./ She fills two Mason jars and carries them home / in the basket of her bicycle. Her mom lets her use / the refrigerator but the girl sleeps / on the porch for the rest of the summer.”
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winterbeach
by L. Ward Abel
“The astronauts spoke of / a change once they’d seen / themselves from out of range…”
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final thoughts of january on an april journey
by Jake Sheff
“The pace of May should be glacial, happiness / Should swell with priestly persistence only then… / Let total depravity’s two ha’pennies / Be tzedakah till the days no longer lengthen.”
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inspired by the 1986 film “chopping mall”
by Alexis Rhodes
“the kill-bots came for us / programmed to take out thieves /they glitched their code / while we fucked in the furniture store.”
Grainy Births
A Disappearing Virtual Poetry (Micro)Chapbook
by Ryan Bry
true cross
by Michael Borth
“It is obvious in the aura of the green light of Honduras / Intersected by the wounds of the martyr, by the mother / Praying silver on the historical hill of the true cross…”
two poems
by Nate Tulay
“Somewhere in Liberia, / where the rain is falling heavy again… / as the effects of the edibles / start to kick in.”
five poems
by KG Miles
“‘To all the Judys, love Mr Punch’.”
luna’s goat
by Özge Lena
“She wore herself as an ordinary error proudly.“
joshua lampshade
by Travis Shosa
“Joshua Lampshade has swallowed / a disco ball, it’s a peach pit vessel / of retro kitsch.”
pot girl summer
by Courtney Leigh
“It’s delulu to want everyone to like you / they’re always so ungiving—I want to not give / but to value the remaining fucks I’ve got.”
barometer
by Eva Alter
“…the distance between myself and the world / was so narrow it was invisible—…”
the carousel
by Mark Belair
“Do not use horse hooves / as step or footrest…”
resensitization
by Jesse Hilson
“I’d been alive a week when they sheared off / My penis, or a part. The doc had drunk / A martini, or two, and off skin came…”
i worry i’m becoming an alcoholic
by Sophia Carroll
“The problem is antipsychotics / don’t get me as high as Icarus…”
galcanezumab-gnlm 120mg injection; topiramate 100mg tablet; rizatriptan 10mg orally disintegrating tablet; acetaminophen 250mg/aspirin 250mg/caffeine 65mg tablet
by Anne B. Maydew
“auras / shift/ beneath / the / currents / of / the / world”
cathedral group
by L. Ward Abel
“Funny the way you picture a place / never squares with the real one…”
excerpt from untitled poem about a red box
by Sarah Rosenthal
“On the surface of the box are embroidered objects that resemble butterflies or flowers; a poem threads its way in between these decorations.”
two poems
by Brandon Diehl
“I dug through the boxes, half-watching / Jason X on the TV, trying to be festive.”
three poems
by Chloe Wheeler
“i’m messaging someone / seeking connection / tapped into Link NYC / for free Wifi…”
two poems
by Natalie Marino
“The night is a blackbird / searching for one dolphin / in a bedfull of oysters.”
thrash fiction
by Jan Hassmann
“…it's taped up with a black X and the low E slithers and sways like a sidewinder in the slow narcotic strobe and the room crackles as you hit the fuzz and drench the surging pit…”
five poems
by Howie Good
“Ghost. Hangman. The names of games we used to play as kids while waiting for the rain to stop or the school bus to come or our normal daily suffering to be avenged.”
two poems
by Sreelekha Chatterjee
“Watery in action, watery in emotions— / brain, heart, lungs, skin, muscles, / kidneys, bones—images seated within, / mirroring their masts.”
three poems
by Jacob Schepers
“Queen / Latifah bites it / from the jellyfish / attack that starts out / so cute and like little nibbles.”
