by Kathryn Wood

“A bolt of wheat unravels west / and I multiply the sky, / watch the train cars spill, tiny / ant by tiny ant, into the corner / pockets of a brass horizon…”

by Alex Carrigan

“The thoughts pound into you like a railroad spike. / You try to ignore the blood pooling in your eye, but / the thoughts demand you lay down for them.”

by Celeste Schueler

“My reflection in a large horse eye / and moods ripening as I turn fifteen, / crawling between barbed wire…”

by Helller Levinson

“. the way a panda refuses to embitter / . you never stopped asking / . sheathed to a tether the rendition bloomed…”

by Nicole Zwolinski

“Nobody told me the havoc, and / agony a screaming uterus / could bestow upon a / woman.”

by Glenn Ingersoll

“I am already digging. I am digging so deep / nobody will ever be able to fathom it.”

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.”