SPINOZA SAYS

by Sandra Lim

He who loves God
cannot endeavor that God
loves him in return.

Do you know,
I think the cool silver
of this is hard to live by.

When there is anything

In Case of Fire

by Shira Dentz

It’s way past time to start heaving:
unplug the air boxes in the harmonica,
bracingly slow,
“No!” rising from your throat
like deer across a road:
there are always more …

American Haiku: Far Away

by Andrea “Vocab” Sanderson

 
Sunrise on the shore
Bright fire of a flaming torch
Beckons me to soar
 

To Go to Belfast

by William Burnside

Whether you’ve boarded from Liverpool or Heysham
or Stranraer, years later the journey is the same
along the Lough at evening, the chimney of the power station

in Kilroot, Carrickfergus …

From Who’s Your Daddy

by Arisa White

Stopping by the Tattoo Parlor on an August Evening

by Meg Day

Whose hands are these I think I know.
In my pants, in the neon glow
of the THRASHER sign above

the toilet, summer is just beginning
to swelter. “No Hands” is …

The Lake Will Wait

by Jill Mceldowney

I know it scares you when I say I’m not afraid to die.

Still, you go on listening,
as birds plummet into the grass—fortune
teller, pharmacist, archangel, swan—

who taught me …

home will come when heaven slums will king her queen

by Rashaad Thomas

Mother woke
before early, daily
tired Black
and white uni-
form sore feet
dish rag hands
cooked mornings
for her family
powdered her cheeks
with Aunt Jemima,
and applied Mrs. …

Sleepless Night #33

by Sarah J. Sloat

“Sleepless Night #33” is one of a series of visual poems combining pages of a Dutch novella with collage. I wanted the poem found on each page to represent the …

retreat

by Rukhsar Palla

quick recoil as heatwave
tries to coax me
my bedroom, a sun-sluiced
temple

outside, maulvis
and bootleggers
cross paths
crisp, orange sky
waxy dawn
rising behind clouds
sister syncs the color

The Tale of the Uncorrupted Body of St. Sebastian of the Carts

by Jeffrey Thomson

human body, silver, glass

el Templo de San Francisco, Puebla, Mexico

When Sebastian was told not to give his cloak away—
he was constantly giving away wealth (his last loaf

of bread, …

Garden Divination

by Catherine-Esther Cowie

A miracle, my aunts and mother chorus—
Grandma’s up and about frying fish,
singing old hymns.

The last hurrah, Uncle whispers in my ear.
We’re on the porch looking out at …