August Contributors
L. Ward Abel, Eva Alter, Michael Borth, Gülen Çelik, Tom Cintula, Dario Cvencek, Mike Ferguson, Blair Hamelink, Daniel Y. Harris, Scott C. Holstad, John Jeffire, Irene Koronas, Courtney Leigh, Özge Lena, Zev Levinson, Thomas M. McDade, Danielle McMahon, KG Miles, Alexis Rhodes, John Sara, Jake Sheff, Travis Shosa, Julian Thumm, Terry Trowbridge, Nate Tulay, Grady VanWright, Philip Venzke, Elana Wolff, and jms xuange
Poetry
August Highlights
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pot summer girl
by Courtney Leigh
“It’s delulu to want everyone to like you / they’re always so ungiving—I want to not give / but to value the remaining fucks I’ve got.”
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joshua lampshade
by Travis Shosa
“Joshua Lampshade has swallowed / a disco ball, it’s a peach pit vessel / of retro kitsch.”
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true cross
by Michael Borth
“It is obvious in the aura of the green light of Honduras / Intersected by the wounds of the martyr, by the mother / Praying silver on the historical hill of the true cross…”
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water girl
by jms xuange
“The water shines./ She fills two Mason jars and carries them home / in the basket of her bicycle. Her mom lets her use / the refrigerator but the girl sleeps / on the porch for the rest of the summer.”
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winterbeach
by L. Ward Abel
“The astronauts spoke of / a change once they’d seen / themselves from out of range…”
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final thoughts of january on an april journey
by Jake Sheff
“The pace of May should be glacial, happiness / Should swell with priestly persistence only then… / Let total depravity’s two ha’pennies / Be tzedakah till the days no longer lengthen.”
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inspired by the 1986 film “chopping mall”
by Alexis Rhodes
“the kill-bots came for us / programmed to take out thieves /they glitched their code / while we fucked in the furniture store.”
Grainy Births
A Disappearing Virtual Poetry (Micro)Chapbook
by Ryan Bry
sandbags
by Dario Cvencek
“…we all knew that / we were capable of / building something / that even grenades / could not / tear down.”
sing in repeat
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 ->”
five poems
by Carleen Tibbetts
“the trope of flawed privilege/an accident of glass/out of language…”
turtles
by Sara Atwater
“Neither of us find sense in this moment / seeing our future reflected in the pond’s darkening light.”
four poems
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?”
nerve center
by Tempest Miller
“He wishes to influence the long-term, sees everything as malleable, an institution, and men and women cast in nickel, lead.”
two poems
by Sasha
“Lips stained / violent / Tell me that / you hate / me”
four poems
by Maceo Nightingale
“Ate a bowl of nose eye cereal / Rubbed milk into long curly hair / Till the hot water poured down…”
the eyes of goats are holy
by David Hay
“God was in the eyes of a goat, / watching me through my bedroom window.”
alcohol splurge and the white light dream
by Mattie-Bretton Hughes
“Throw my bottle at the fence, / soaking my face in a backsplash.” ‘
five poems
by Ryan Quinn Flanagan
“Your Rushmore on the crumble. / The babbling turncoats. / Bites marks through the rambling / Streptococcus.”
i see what you’re saying
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 ”
two poems
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…”
autocartographies
by Eva Alter
“…tunnel-visioned wisps of reality
hold me steady I see little and feel
everything…”
three poems
by Candice M. Kelsey
“first burst of color, strange life each morning, / first song of light home each evening, / what awaits me on the other side / of a metal screen door double locked”
three visual poems
by R. Gerry Fabian
“…survival / sometimes / depends / on who / knows the / depth of hunger.”
Excerpts from Novel Lines 101 (a work-in-progress)
by Stephen Bett
“(When they cut off your service, they mean it,” hon)”
five poems
by Strider Marcus Jones
“…those leaves on the pavement / rejected with resentment / turning brown / no history written down.”
an inquiry into the death of pan
by Matthew DeLuca
“I heard his voice as they closed the books on him: How interesting, he said. How interesting.”
three poems
by Joshua Martin
“between LaRkS: visions / repellent ontological / marching = [hoofs] / [ducks / silk TuNNeLs], / ; ; ; ; ; | ‘what soft embers strain like passenger / sublimity’ | ; ; ; ; ; = = = = = > combing JellY”
