My Mother is a Contestant on The Golden Bachelor The first episode is crowded, the names a confusion the women a kaleidoscope of sparkle, bangle, and tit. In their moments on camera, they sing to Gerry, claim aging is an honor, show us their throats, tell him their signs. My mother isn’t the one in… Read More My Mother is a Contestant on The Golden Bachelor ~ poetry by Joanna Theiss

prayer to a boy my worn out band-aid collector of a heart has tricked my mind into believing you are a wasteland god my lover of unresolved and unforgiven screaming matches without oxygen i’ll lay my rotting sentences before your altar a shower head unhurriedly dripping my blood and pray pray pray pray pray in… Read More prayer to a boy ~ poetry by Megan Archibeque

To become a mystical surgeon, there are three texts one must study: The History of Tulips, George Washington Carver’s The Compendium of Moon Silences and The Book of Whale Secrets. From each, one learns about exactly one third of the personal cosmos. In the first third, the undried inks of wanderlust grapple with the shy… Read More The Education of the Mystical Surgeons ~ prose poem by Philip Jason

Good night blue bird, bohemian, bullets over broadway, boudoir banter, Banshee, bicycle rat, Bisquick, big slick, here, pussy pussy, bad bloke, unwoke, dry duck, grey goose, delaudid, die-hard, rhythmic sounding, hulabaloo. Good night ah chu!, the flu, all things one hundred percent too terribly true, dynamic, decrepit, deceased, demanded, fungus, fingernail, finicky up-do, rue the… Read More Night Soliloquy ~ poetry by Mary Paulson

another existential morning and aren’t we just prayers walking into each other and isn’t the half moon just the other half of everything we need and aren’t we just breathing and blood words and thoughts desire and death and isn’t the sun our imagination come to life isn’t it hope and doesn’t it go away… Read More Two Poems ~ poetry by Anthony George

The heart is coated in ribbons and bells, I guess this was always how things would go, crouched in the sandcastle made of hands, you in your mother’s faded Cape Cod sweatshirt and me in your pants, this feeling is an error, half of the day is swallowed by caverns, I have to reteach my… Read More Sugar Tide ~ poetry by Samantha Moe

Sunday morning before church; in the blackberry patch. Boys plucking berries, lips smack red; giddy kisses in the thorns, snakes gliding past their shoes. Sunday morning before church; from behind a pine, the Devil files his nails. Sunday morning before church; out pop lizards, green anole, red bib bobbing in robotic threat; mockingbird robs songs… Read More Pink Boys: Sunday Pastoral ~ prose poetry by Kim Salinas Silva

PROTEST V Flaming shingles fly above the streets outside neighbor’s apartment – playing NBA 2K21, blasting DJ Screw, Wretched of the Earth on the end table, white fist raised, curtains closed. Young folk out walking rawly the expanse of reality. PROTEST IV Sky closes on elm trees and metal-throated birds above street crowd flushed out… Read More Two Poems ~ poetry by Adam Day

  a prisoner spit at me and I stopped and he looked at me like I was a vulture and he was a corpse and I would usually just keep walking but the spit hit my arm and so I looked at it when he was looking at me and I looked up and the… Read More when I was an EMT in the prison ~ poetry by Ron Riekki

Sometimes, when we feel like aliens, which is most of the time (but whatever), we wonder: Do you know us? If not, it’s okay. It’s okay. Who knows us, really knows us? Gets us? The woman with a YouTube music reaction channel, the woman with a slow-rolling teardrop in her voice hearing feeling believing in… Read More The Ones Who Know Us ~ prose poem by Pat Foran

Anatomy of Melancholy From lapidary inscriptions, from signs, from stones, in the beginning, I try to rebuild you. The sky says, “Take this boot-knife, consider it a gift from a friend.” Was it then I noticed death can be a lesser misery? “It may well be.” quips Robert Burton, author of The Anatomy of Melancholy.… Read More Anatomy of Melancholy ~ poetry by Laurie Rosenblatt

Against Beginnings Each night I grow my second self a quarter inch and now her girth fills the bed, soon the room. By noon next Tuesday month she’ll fill the garage, then the block. Next year I’ll enter a city and change the weather, bringing what’s blue and open, like legs. Each night I grow… Read More Three poems ~ poetry by Barbara Lock

Author’s note: Scan the QR codes for an instant look at the artworks. Or visit https://andreaswannerstedt.se. Mikaela Nyman writes fiction, non-fiction and poetry in English and Swedish. Her first poetry collection in Swedish was shortlisted for the Nordic Council Literature Prize 2020. Recent poems have appeared in The Spinoff Friday poem, the climate change anthology No… Read More Oddly Satisfying: a meditation ~ poetry by Mikaela Nyman

My death every day is the idea of being made invisible I die of invisibility, my blackness devalued by lack of empathy from slavery up to Breonna Taylor, I am here to make space for blackness to be visible. The words that I write must show you how invisible you are to me because you… Read More I Feel Like a Mosquito Taking on Godzilla ~ poetry by Ilari Pass 

Craig Foltz is the author of three books of prose / poetry (available via Ugly Duckling and Compound Press). His work has appeared in numerous journals (Fence, Conjunctions, Diagram and others). He currently lives and works on the North Island of New Zealand. For more info or collaborative pitches: http://www.craigfoltz.com.

Your Mind Wanders Because Your Brain Whispers a found poem [You store] memories in a new place when you daydream. Electrical impulses encode like different barcodes identify a product in the stores. This happens thousands of times a day without us being aware. We think we are not doing anything useful, our brain is very… Read More Two Poems ~ poetry by Laura Grace Weldon

Maximilian Speicher (https://www.maxspeicher.com) is a designer who writes, mostly sitting on his balcony in Barcelona, watching his orange trees grow. Although he’s been writing poetry on and off for many years, he only recently started submitting it. His first published poems have appeared in Impspired, and more are forthcoming in Otoliths Magazine and The Avalon Literary Review. Show Maximilian… Read More Vacation ◦ by the Pool • Three Variations ~ poetry by Maximilian Speicher

Ann Keeling was Editor-in-Chief of the Pitkin Review and is a fiction/poetry reader for Wild Roof Journal and Reservoir Road Literary Review. Her work has been published or will appear in SEAF’s literary art anthology, Jellyfish Review, Lucky Jefferson, defunct magazine, and others. Her fiction work was shortlisted for the 2022 Force Majeure Flash Contest. She holds an MFA-Creative Writing from Goddard College.… Read More Memorable Story ~ poetry by Ann Keeling

Victoria Nordlund’s poetry collection, Wine-Dark Sea, was published by Main Street Rag in 2020. She is a Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize Nominee, whose work has appeared in PANK Magazine, Rust+Moth, Chestnut Review, Pidgeonholes, and elsewhere. Visit her at VictoriaNordlund.com. Show Victoria some love via PayPal at Goodsirbob(at)gmail(dot)com.

You don’t know—but I do—that you’re going to break her. She is a mountainside carpeted in heather and lupine. Whether or not you intend to, there are these fissures you will chisel, and she will carry the itch of them into every future man’s arms, and they will never be able to reach them to… Read More To My Daughter’s First Boyfriend ~ poetry by Kerry Trautman

I’m just out of reach, on the periphery, a shaking branch, a darting shape like someone touching your right elbow from behind in a crowd. You turn to see who it was but I’m gone. On the subway, I’ve kept alive a daffodil wrapped in damp paper towel and tinfoil. Maybe you’ve seen my tan… Read More Mystery Speaks ~ poetry by Jessica Purdy

Bethany Jarmul is a writer, essayist, and editor. Her work has appeared in The Citron Review, Brevity blog, Gastropoda, Literary Mama, and Sky Island Journal among others. She earned first place in Women On Writing’s Q2 2022 essay contest. She lives near Pittsburgh with her family. Connect with her at bethanyjarmul.com or on Twitter: @BethanyJarmul.… Read More YouTube Videos That Dad Sent Me (2020-2022) Turned Into Poetry ~ poetry by Bethany Jarmul

Painting Party at an Indian Buffet I am scumbling a cataract waterfall with underhanded oils, ad-libbing the lilac current and dysmorphic October Glory maple trees. Feeling prolific and pioneering, I fashion a festooned mermaid headlining shamrock curls, gaudy beneath the lioness sun atop an out-of-tune libertine boulder garden. The pedestrian instructor clears her throat stormily,… Read More Painting Party at an Indian Buffet ~ poetry by Megan Denese Mealor

Joshua St. Claire is a CPA who works as a financial controller in Pennsylvania. He enjoys writing poetry on coffee breaks and after putting the kids to bed. His work is published or forthcoming in Delmarva Review, Inflectionist Review, Blue Unicorn, ubu., and bones, among others, and has received nominations for the Pushcart. Show Joshua… Read More Catachresis ~ poetry by Joshua St. Claire

  Megan Riddell is a central-Florida-based poet, family law paralegal, and mother to her daughter, Violet. Megan is also a soon-to-be graduate of the University of Central Florida, with her Master of Fine Arts in creative writing, specializing in poetry and creative non-fiction, in May 2022. Some of her poems have been featured in the… Read More Stalemate ~ poetry by Megan Riddell

toward the end we sit together in the darkness The heavy curtains drawn, the sun a wash like clorox on the screen boxed in the console. I sip a cabernet, the way my mother used to do to accompany the hours of the Zenith. My father with the don’t-touch-the-remote at his elbow. The cuff, the… Read More Two Poems ~ poetry by Kathleen Hellen

Pilate’s Dream Pilate, at bliss with his lead hypnosis, through it, a hazy trip in the desert, in his mind, a mirage where a ghost of myrrh speaks in languages, in rituals, “goodbye to earth,” wasting time with bliss, a vision he does not like, no more pantheon, a golden triangle Pilate, sour, mindful of… Read More Two poems ~ poetry by Ben Nardolilli

Imbongi, praise singer, passions’ planter, ancestors’ defender, Reciter of penetrating poetry (divulging familial interactions), Reteller of histories, commentator on community affairs, she Dares pronounce the ineffable. During ceremonial activities, or else thru “important” episodes, Outrageous statements, critical rhetoric, and indelicate remarks, That gnarled woman remains protected by champions, dreaded, Revered as her revelations. Ancient wisdom… Read More Griot ~ poetry by KJ Hannah Greenberg

[in]transpiring: a psychosomatic [re-]glitch[ing] Ami J. Sanghvi (he/they) is a non-binary, Indian-American, queer author, artist, designer, boxer, Eric Hoffer Book Award finalist, and recent graduate from the California Institute of the Arts Creative Writing M.F.A. program (concentration: image/text). He is a fiction editor for Decolonial Passage, poetry editor for Wrongdoing Magazine, staff writer for Chaotic Merge, and photographer for AsianZine, as… Read More [in]transpiring: a psychosomatic [re-]glitch[ing] ~ graphic poetry by Ami J. Sanghvi

Perhaps I should soften like April light on the hardy plants  that is my attempt at creating a metaphor out of my dad  and I can do better than that but poets are sometimes arseholes.  Perhaps I should learn from the condensation in a bouquet  and understand that cut down carnations in their prime have… Read More My dad wants to meet for coffee again ~ poetry by Antony Owen

don’t go in the horse ring too soon the horse might kick you                    or step on you if a horse’s foot is stepped on by a boy that’s something          about God a first sexual mistake e.g. or a too-hard yank on a… Read More *cotton candy* ~ poetry by Jamie Spenser

Prey No air in the cafe and my Coke melting quick and that guy staring hot from behind and to my right, reminding me of the campground with friends, the day hot and moonlight barely cooler, me full of Yukon Jack, walking alone back from the bathroom, not drunk enough for squatting in shrubs, hoping… Read More Three Poems ~ poetry by Kerry Trautman

There is clear jelly agar oozing from me after the sex, which I try to mop up with socks from my backpack A guy in his late 60s (early 70s?) and his wife The super-old hot guy comes in on his way to the en-suite, says to me: My wife asked me to tell you… Read More Sex Dream ~ poetry by Syreeta Muir

Thlok when drunk.Thlok for deer.Thlok for you to fail.Thlok when you can’t thlok.Thlok chips on the poker table. Thlok your name being called. Thlok falls down.Thlok shut up.Thlok talk about their children.Thlok hard work. Thlok jolt a finger. Thlok beer poured into a glass. Thlok guitar pedal. Thlok your partner. Thlok caw.Thlok you have no interest in. Thlok two packs a day. Thlok typing with mitts. Thlok silent manner.Thlok urinate. Thlok wind machine. Thlok monster. Thlok opinion without listening. Thlok fast asleep. Thlok two big sticks.  Thlok fish swims away. Thlok across the street.Thlok thawing snow in spring.Thlok thoughts during sex.Thlok man mansplaining thlok.… Read More Thlok ~ poetry by James Croal Jackson

Nonideological dialect contains dreams, habits, intuition, moreoverThe construction of private/public meaning; few nonexperts embrace Make-believe’s robustness derived from lexes’ haunting resonances. Consequently, meditation of integrity’s assembly arguments intimate  Human interactions in the categorizing of heuristics, gets sacrificedWhile reifying virtuous agreement arrays, equally apples’ acridness. Popular, western epistemic fact/value divisions, suggest exclusivity Versus aesthetics/ techniques, not disparate from conflict literature,(Can’t always contribute solutions or patch up spider-free bananas.) Compared with nontraditional ingredients, forms… Read More The Fruitfulness of Communication’s Moral Component ~ poetry by KJ Hannah Greenberg

Skimming Sideways When you reach that magic agewhen no player picks the magnesium trickfrom your sandwich, you’re wont toexhale red notches, the kind mountaingoats rejuvenate when they wash up inForge Village.  Disgruntled cherry pickers, notwithstanding,if you have never smoked a dobro guitar, ordwelt in the doldrums of twin religions,Go ahead and cancel your contract, they’ll… Read More Three poems ~ poetry by Frank William Finney

Around a felt-top table in Al’s faux-walnut-paneled breezeway, a small group in northwest Iowa — farmers, bookkeepers, stay-at-home moms — gathers for a game of Texas Hold ‘em.  Though Bicycles are dealt to each player, it’s the booze and the tobacco, a little weed and a little speed that are the true calling cards. priorities… Read More Game Night ~ poetry by Julie Allyn Johnson

Letter to Bernadette Mayer March 13th, 2020 I’m drunk and in the dream of how things get written. Not eating   running at least three miles a day, water and some good rye from out east of Salt Lake  tides me over. I have been fostering this idea where I send you some money soon… Read More Letter to Bernadette Mayer ~ poetry by Andrew Romanelli

AUTHOR’S NOTE: These are found poems for which I used the January 2020 issue of O Magazine as my source material. For each poem, I would start with a word or short phrase, then move forward until I found a new word or phrase that joined it in an interesting way, and keep going until I had… Read More Three poems ~ poetry by Marilyn Cavicchia

4, the tendons of the foot, sinew stretched taut as rubber bands, cat gut. 4 is also an exposed thigh bone, close to an (n), horizontal and lateral lines on a map of a body flayed open for investigation. 4(e), a silent scream, or a smile, a sarcastic smirk, a laugh aborted. Two teeth missing,… Read More On Paper ~ poetry by Holly Day