by Jeffrey Zable

“Receiving a call on my landline from some realty guy, he says, / ‘I heard that you’re interested in selling your house. Could you / please answer some questions. . .’”

by Shaylynn Marks

“Arms lifted, he commands, “Have Miss Marks blow.” / In that deep, Appalachian twang—native to West Virginia./ I said, “of course, your majesty” with a wink / And a curtsy, I blew the little Jail in West Virginia down.”

by Christopher Jones

“You say my name and I appear / faster than a speeding bullet: / “Superman, save me! / Superman, save me more! / Superman, I’m not a racist, but…”

by Eva Alter

“Thirteen     degrees separate me     from     ruin Russian nesting years      folded        away in abnegation…”

by Frank William Finney

“He stalked their schools / and then turned tail — / a trail of Ahabs / in his wake.”

by Wayne F. Burke

“Add a comma, throw in a dash, use an ellipsis whenever you do not know where to go...”

by James Benger

“Raindrops spackle the windshield, / and the sky goes prematurely twilight./ Well this is bullshit," Mom says. / Sometimes we agree.”

by Simon Collinson

“Swinging and slapped cos punky said I’d stamped on a spider. That wasn’t kind. Now the screaming head is cross and determined to teach all about kindness.”

by Howie Good

“Cover your Webcam with tape. You aren’t invisible. The black dots in the distance may be evil angels on the wing, and it’s still only the afternoon.”

by L. Ward Abel

“I sit here inside of now. / A ceiling fan wheels to a blur.”

by Thomas McDade

“Today a possum lies / Dead as if the monster / Had scared it to death…”

by Robert McDonald

“The dark lady laughed again. A sound like crows shouting at the old tom cat in the backyard. The dark lady laughs, at plans, and predictions, at anyone who thinks they know how life is going to be.”

by Ewen Glass

“Read in me at each fingertip / the lines of rising tides, / the milky crescent of nail / that finds calcium in soil…”

by Kathleen Nalley and Gabrielle Brant Freeman

“They incinerate placentas after birth. / They burned us at the stake just for being.”

by Naa Asheley Afua Adowaa Ashitey

“Yesterday, I accidently tripped on that annoying part of the stairway that has now accumulated eight different work orders.”

by Mykyta Ryzhykh

“Mushroom pickers picking mold on my fish spine / A basket full of ashy cast-iron nights and red bony sunsets…”

by Jason Davidson

“I’ll be cold asleep on the floor, with you sutured inside my skull’s / parlor, / a naked cowboy, a shining giant, a beautiful hoax, a permanent coma.”

by Chantel Lavoie

“The last Manson girl-child in prison / whose arm, at 21, grew sore, stabbing / wakes every day, knowing / she’s a destroyer. She regrets.”

by Dario Cvencek

“we deem some children’s deaths more tragic than others.”

by Zebulon Huset

“Eric would eventually be promoted to drive-thru— / one of the few teenagers content to make a buck / and not fuck off frequently enough to be fired…”