by Patrick Johnston

“Transnistria Transmission: this looks bad… the cognitive virus known as the Mbrako Ormo Koncept seems to have mutated.”

by Patrick Johnston

“There was a time that was known as Addishant/ And the king rode out amongst his people / And they toppled him from his horse / And killed him.”

by Devon Fulford

“it always comes back to our teeth— / --DNA merely suggests you share time / sometimes, that’s uproarious amusement… / …other times, it’s handcuffs, a hospital bed, / and the tears that came when you saw me.”

by Annie Williams

“unlovable - unfuckable - untamable - untouchable…I have been named - all these names - I wear them like big shiny buttons on my skin - creating pure metallic gore - becoming an angel - cenobite…”

by Prahi Rajput

“…I didn’t have the chance to know the difference between / the skulking lesbian, the galled lesbian, the malfunctioning lesbian. / I have been de-fetishising as capably as the toolbox / I never had the pleasure of knowing.”

by Adele Hally

“Abandoned cicadas’ / desiccated exoskeletons cling to the trees; they crackle / in the heat, waiting forever to be reunited, complete.”

by · R L · powell

“Having been so high / up—I confess my second / takes, come / from looking down.”

by Yvonne Morris

“The first shot opens on a mysterious woman sitting / alone in a train compartment near a window. / We watch the green English countryside speed by / in black and white.”

by James Morehead

“We’re together in the galleries / holding hands and pointing / Your father joyous after Canadian Thanksgiving / my father’s father unreadable over a poker hand…”

by R.M. Engelhardt

“You are nothing and shall be forgotten like the dust. Beneath us, like the earth. Extremum Vitae Spiritum ...”

by Hailey Paetzel

“Men destroy their bodies delicately. Why can I not chain smoke with dignity?”

by Cara Paleschi

“I have always dreamt of being sweet and creamy / Condensed Milk…”

by Joshua Lillie

“I’m what happens when you surprise an armadillo / with a weekend trip to Pensacola. / I’m the face in the crowd that you can’t quite place. / Am I your uncle? I’m too young to be your uncle.” 

by Brad Rose

“I’m liable to be drafted by the secret police who are always recruiting new informants. As for me, mum’s the word.”

by Katie Johntz

“Healing / comes in the smallest of strokes. / I am stretching my arms out / towards order, towards elegance.”

by David Calogero Centorbi

“The waiter sees pigeons holding machetes or lighters. / He never knows, but he accepts his fate.”

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…”