Debra Allbery
Argosy
There was no horizon, only freight trains
and bean fields, low clouds that I’d squint
into mountains or oceans. Slow glower
of those boondocks, broken sidewalks
and fallow streets, the factory
setting our clocks…
Amanda Chiado
Crushing on Nerds
This is sad. You love dorks. Geeks that smell like pimple cream and have large glasses that make their eyes bob and bulge like silky Betas. You count the pleats on their tan pants and their tight white briefs consume your nightlife…
Kenton K. Yee
The Second State of Matter
I’ve noticed that progress happens film-like.
A lifetime in a hundred fifty minutes
of chiaroscuro. The Wizard as hero-conman.
How pipes and wires can pipe lightning inside.
How sprites won’t zap you at all, no matter
their decibel. How slippers can save, cyclones
challenge. Song’s a strategy. Skipping too…
Jasmina Kuenzli
The Wild Hunt
And for so long I wasn’t anything. A pile of rocks to the side of the trail, might be a tiny grave or some kid’s collection. Circles in the mushrooms at the edge of the woods. Heartbeats through clothes. I was no one except grief…
Janice Northerns
At the Cotillion Ballroom in Wichita, Kansas
The name conjures crinoline skirts and tea dances,
a white dinner jacket, prim and pressed.
My son and I sit near the back and take in
what’s here now: an older couple sipping Coors
in matching camo jackets while three girls
strut the aisle like runway models, bare shoulders
gleaming beacons…
Moudi Sbeity
Something Useful
My grandmother has known war as a staple
in the pantry you never run out of,
like jasmine rice or green lentils,
or the thick viscous olive oil she harvests
which doubles as ointment for deep wounds.
She kept the blood at bay…
Dana Tenille Weekes
At 22, I Reported a Case of Sexual Harassment and Was Asked to Meet About It a Week Later
I am told to think of him, a Black man,
a father of a two-month-old. Imagine,
as I lean into my lungs, concentrate on cocoa,
this porcelain before me. Watch steam wither. Wonder
if I can bring anything back with held breath…
Ashley Oakes
A Sign From the Gods via WhatsApp
My attorney friend messaged me
There is a crow at my office. He sits like a letter on the company marquee
and watches. Well
(I texted back) Did you know ravens come to Odin every day they bring him
the news: how many fires
and so forth…
Zachary Lorico Hertz
nine thousand nine hundred ninety nine days
and hardly anything of note to show for it, can only hear the disapproving sigh of two thousand two hundred nine saying he thought for sure you’d be an engineer (trains, not buildings) while four thousand six hundred twenty four, petulant as always, can’t fucking believe you aren’t married yet…
Jamie Kim
Never Never
You never told me your full name; you never asked for mine; you never memorized my coffee order; never bought me flowers; never kissed me on the I-95; you never said that I’m cool –– this is cool –– let’s be cool about it; I never said I’m cool –– you’re cool –– I’ll be cool about it; we never jumped off the cliffs at 1:37 AM in Avignon…
Laura Mills
Sneachd beag nan uan
I’m on the phone with the
mental health nurse
talking about the weather
when I first learn of the
lambing snow, that fleeting earthly frosting,
when the snow – long given up for spring –
marks the lambs being born…
Abiodun Salako
We Laughed
nobody tells you that nothing
will wait for you when you are still,
the snow geese, warblers and wrens
will fly home for the winter.
those things like starfishes in air,
called daffodils will bloom in spring,
the world didn’t wait for my father…
Susan Trofimow
Anger
Without thinking, you’ve waded
deep into the pond, turned your back
on the comforts of the tranquil hillside
to face the astonishing sun, not blinding
but enough to clear the murky water.
Between your legs, small fish dart…
Essay: Debra Allbery
Return to Winesburg
The last time Sherwood Anderson returned to Clyde, Ohio, the hometown he and I share, was July 5, 1922, after his second major departure, from wife #2 of his eventual four, and an advertising job. “A pilgrimage back into the realities of life,” he wrote at the time to Marietta Finley…