by Maisie Kennedy Sherriff

“…I poise, then take the shot, fifteen / cl, twelve gauge, ten seconds, liquid agave burns, gasoline / lit on the tongue of a dragon, tequila neon red sunset, io Triomphe!”

by Deron Eckert

“I can neither be bothered by nor escape the chill of death.”

by Kalina Smith

“The apples didn’t fall far / from the gnarled family tree, / covered in cockchafers / who kill the lilies and violet, / burning every shred of beauty down / in just a moment’s flash.”

by Jeff Hardin

“Wasn’t it a child’s mind that asked if we could stand / atop a lily pad? Maybe God weighs our every future, / lets this one follow its logic, lets this one slip away.”

by Izzy Nameth Beck

“the hotel is nice for one night / but the roads / are pitted ponds / we light the one-hitter on our way through”

by Bex Hainsworth

“It's been fifteen years since I allowed / her fussing, but now we both indulge. / I can’t say which balm soothes the burn. / When she slips teabags into my suitcase, / I smile, hold close her charms.”

by Mykyta Ryzhykh

“Houses are falling apart like adverbs. However, the river inside me continues to dissolve death because the flow of liquid is the real alchemical time.”

by Marc Frazier

“Our world does not fall into / chaos but is a cosmos flowering around us— / invisible sutra running through it / an aura like the unconscious choices an artist makes…”

by Marc Frazier

“My former God an ossuary of old selves / We must put on new clothes, mustn’t we? / mine fit the hibiscus bush’s arms that reach— / bright red blossoms stun me into consciousness…”

by Allyn Bernkopf

“Which bones do you keep for your collection? / Horse? Bird? Toad? Take the Goldfinch. Take a crack / at the skull of real. At the life around. Unmasked.”

by Olivia Rose

“All the bright parts were veering toward the hail that drummed the earth / new. Jesus, did you save this part? The mice in the road scream Caesar! Caesar! (I’m not / kidding.)”

by Brooke N. Plummer

“the last book I skimmed through / before break was a collection / of recipes from I Love Lucy.”

by Patricia Powers

“I saw a news story once about a dog eating its owner’s face. / She was drugged up on medicine and slept through it until she woke up and / realized something was wrong.”

by Joey Junsu Hong

“You smiled the way you did at the hall the night before, / freckles lifting briefly, / as if the welcome might hold.”

by Ben Starr

“I was thirteen when I first noticed / dirt under my fingernails. In my hair, / between my curling toes. Indigenous / grasses sprouted.”

by Hayley Shucker

“I gave away / or lost / soul mates and sanity.”

by Carol Shillibeer

“It’s bad enough when she’s a huge-assed bird, but in her human form—it can get kind of awkward.”

by Annie Rachele Lanzillotto

“Stepping on Colors is deep in my consciousness. / As we step forward / we heal the ground with each step. / The world will know where we walked.”

by Yucheng Tao

“…time is a shattered mirror, / reflecting her in the arms / of a golden-haired man, / meeting me with cold silence.”

by David P. Miller

“In these waste circles, I seem more like waste / than my body would be, cut to shards.”