POETRY

First Winter by Hala Alyan

Two Poems by Patrick Rosal

Reprise by Kathleen Hellen

Birthday by Lauren Hilger

Two Poems by Rachel Eliza Griffiths

Stack of Brightness by Rosalynde Vas Dias

The Smallest Man by Julie Brooks Barbour

Persistent Design by Nate Pritts

Two Poems by Joy Ladin

Two Poems by Lee Sharkey

Trees by David Lawrence

Light Installation at the Hilton by Iva Ticic

Breath Memory [Breath Alphabet] by Cory Hutchinson-Reuss

 

FICTION

The Landlord by Peace Adzo Medie

Lipochrome by Nathan Poole

Singing Backup by Jason Kapcala

 

ARTWORK

Britton Snyder

www.brittsnyder.com

click to view full-size images

6

DEAR AMERICA by Rachel Eliza Griffiths

I pick you up
& you are a child made of longing
clasped to my neck. Iridescent,
lovely, your inestimable tantrums,
I carry you back & forth
from the underworlds
where your giggles echo,
grow into howls.

Your alphabet wraps itself
like a tourniquet
around my tongue.

Speak now, the static says.
A half-dressed woman named Truth
tells me she is a radio.

I’m going to ignore happiness
& victory.
I’m going to undo myself
with music.

I pick you up
& the naked trees lean
into the ocean where you arrived,
shaking chains & freedom
from your head.

No metaphor would pull you
out of your cage.

Light keens for the dead.
& I’m troubled
by my own blind touch.

Did the ocean release
my neck? Did the opal waves
blow our cries to shore?

You don’t feel anything
in the middle of the night.

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