by Blair Nelsen

“Long, cloud-like ropes of branching white, / holly-dotted with persistent, / scarring, indelible red./ Two caws, and silence again.”

by Mykki Rios

“An angel falls from somewhere / and the astronomer / calls it a meteorite / and the birdwatcher / calls it a meadowlark / and isn’t it interesting / that we all see something / different…”

by Naomi Bess Leimsider

“The dentist says being a dentist means he’ll never run out of work. Never age / out. For him, the mechanics of fixing, filling, are forever. What a / life!

by Tempest Miller

“A donkey bites my hair / a bear hides in a tree / a bear hides in a tree / but the donkey kicks back legs into a woodburner / and lets go…”

by KG Miles

“…Robin Hood riding through the glen / Robin Hood, Robin Hood with his band of men / Feared by the bad / Loved by the good / Funded by The Communist Party Of America / Robin Hood…”

by Brandon Yu

“Pentagram onion rings invoked by the Unnamed One, Lord of the Shadow Realm.”

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.”