Barber Shop by Abigail Goodhart
“Announce me, let them know I am coming. Carry me into the arena on a King Carrier. I come from a lineage of linebackers. My knuckles are a mountain range. Your booing only makes me more powerful.”
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Mending by Anna Stacy
“’Two weeks,’ Tamara echoes, like she’s mulling it over. Her legs are dangling over the arm of the chair. ‘Why don’t you just break up with him the normal way?’
‘Because that would require confrontation,’ I explain.
‘And knitting an entire sweater is easier than confrontation.’
‘Yes.’
Tamara turns to Lark for support, but he’s nodding solemnly. ‘Yeah, that holds up,’ he says.” -
Breathwork, I by Kristin Berger
“Something reminded me today that a parent of mine had died
and the barometric pressure fell, and rain began to touch the river.” -
My Only Bangle by Rooja Mohassessy
“Today I celebrate my only bangle
my one-hand applause
the gold leaf on my family tree
my hand-hammered heritage
my blood.” -
The BADASS Study (Behavior and Demographics of Actively Sexual Seniors) by Sue Pace
“‘How come they don’t ask about costumes?’ Carly Beth asked.
‘Costumes?’
‘This one guy I was dating a while ago only wanted to do it if I wore a pantsuit and he wore a Donald Trump mask.’
Karen kept her head down and said in a voice she hoped was neutral, ‘You can always type in your own comments. Just press F4.'” -
White Moths Everywhere by Cortney Davis
“a white moth arrives rising and falling
on the warm breeze, lingers on the headstonethen on my bare arm, clinging as if
searching for moist skin or the scent of me.” -
Evelin by Ann Bauleke
“I imagine Evelin, her flour-sack print dress, brandishing stick dolls with her younger cousin, whose rash and persistent fever earlier that month no one mentioned. I imagine Evelin waking near dawn, whimpering, coughing, hot to the touch. Grandma takes her into their bed, Grandpa having left to cart fuel to farmers. The child sleeps fitfully, radiating heat.”
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Hope is the vixen fox by Jenna Rindo
“I stare out the window
over the sink, the citrus soap promising
something pure as we shelter in place.
A rolling fog smokes the green
grass. The vixen glides her grizzled gray
between orchard and rock wall border.” -
Aubade with Nipple Shield & Liquid Moon by Geula Geurts
“Milk passes through me like liquid moons,
wet stars on her tongue. She suckstill I’m emptied of all the white
cells in my celestial body.” -
Your Lips by Micki Blenkush
“Because this is endearment not indictment
I’ll say that I admire the commitment you’ve recently made
to eating your berries with the knife used to clean them
rather than using a spoon.”
