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.”

by Brandon Diehl

“I dug through the boxes, half-watching / Jason X on the TV, trying to be festive.”

by Chloe Wheeler

“i’m messaging someone / seeking connection / tapped into Link NYC / for free Wifi…”

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…”

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.”

by Sreelekha Chatterjee

“Watery in action, watery in emotions— / brain, heart, lungs, skin, muscles, / kidneys, bones—images seated within, / mirroring their masts.”

by Jacob Schepers

“Queen / Latifah bites it / from the jellyfish  / attack that starts out / so cute and like little nibbles.”

by Dario Cvencek

“…we all knew that / we were capable of / building something / that even grenades / could not / tear down.”

by Hannah Maloney and Jessie Lifton

“- -> upon the water where two rivers meet -> / -> hums in nameless the mercy seat  -> driftwood set upon the humming -> / -> the broken meter drumming ->”

by Carleen Tibbetts

“the trope of flawed privilege/an accident of glass/out of language…”

by Sara Atwater

“Neither of us find sense in this moment / seeing our future reflected in the pond’s darkening light.”

by Lizzie Scheader

“Briny martini’s / are just too grown / up for me. / I need to have something sweet after. / Can I lick your molars? / You spit in my mouth?”

by Tempest Miller

“He wishes to influence the long-term, sees everything as malleable, an institution, and men and women cast in nickel, lead.”

by Sasha

“Lips stained / violent / Tell me that / you hate / me”

by Maceo Nightingale

“Ate a bowl of nose eye cereal / Rubbed milk into long curly hair / Till the hot water poured down…”

by David Hay

“God was in the eyes of a goat, / watching me through my bedroom window.”

by Mattie-Bretton Hughes

“Throw my bottle at the fence, / soaking my face in a backsplash.” ‘

by Ryan Quinn Flanagan

“Your Rushmore on the crumble. / The babbling turncoats. / Bites marks through the rambling / Streptococcus.”

by John Jeffire

“What is seen in complete darkness is most clearly seen and when I see what you’re saying I hear nothing at all ”

by Steve Passey

“your kisses taste good like man’s last cigarette could only a fool would waste it I just want to taste it one more time…”