“We plod in numb, arthritic steps—uphill / at first to make returning easier.”
Unrhymed
“How came I to this place of burning stars?”
“My Baba rokus through her TV apps, / calls up the Royal Shakespeare Company”
AMIT MAJMUDAR
“Caterpillars build their bunkers out / of terror.”
ANA MICHALOWSKY
“We curse. We gather arms. We show our bloody beasts. / Once every word is drawn and swung, we turn to silence.”
STEPHEN GIBSON
“If she could see the future, would it matter? / Change things? She might say it would.”
MATTHEW MCLAUGHLIN MALYON
“The open coffin waited in the room, / a stone in ocean tide”
PETER SWANSON
“They change their bills / From green to feather hues, then buy the beers, / Push back the dampened sleeves. “
DANA SONNENSCHEIN
“The hillside held in shadows’ branching net / and the reservoir in wave-splashed ice resound / when swans rise, kicking, scattering light”
RICHARD O’CONNELL
“Depletion haunted him: things running down, / As if there were no spare parts in the world”
