In and out of water

by Overcomer Ibiteye in Issue Seven, November 2022

There’s a fierce audacity about water:
the way it barges into palimpsest buildings unannounced
the way the buildings are sucked into a void
the way the water barrels our bodies into a concave
cross-referencing us with open tombs.

There are different ways... Continue →

Two Beaches

by Devin Miller in Issue Six, September 2022

I want to show you the beach
that has been with me since I was in utero.
Now I carry it inside me in my turn:
the rocks, the barnacles with their
fronds and sharp edges,
the shards of bathroom tile and blackboard,
the mud and grabbing kelp and broken... Continue →

Skyscraper

by Annika Barranti Klein in Issue Six, September 2022

First published in Fireside Quarterly, January 2020

I was thinking today of a
world without traffic lights
where pushing the button
on the dashboard for recirculated air
would send the carbon dioxide
we breathe out from the cabin
into... Continue →

send down the rain is no song when the belly goes to war

by the_people in Issue Six, September 2022

zephyr sings a lullaby into my body
that she may light my eyes and dulcify my tongue

don't listen to her—
⁠the aphorism of my stomach roared in hurt
and reluctantly, i was submerged in its words:
that a lay cannot quench the lust for bread Continue →

Let the Water in

by Vanessa Jae in Issue Six, September 2022

The earth tears at her concrete visage
until she can breathe through the cracks.

Listen to the viscous vows of retaliation
she presses through her stuffed throats:

Let the water in,
she murmurs as she feels rain brushing against
her mask of... Continue →

Factory Reset

by RC deWinter in Issue Six, September 2022

The rain, sweet with the scent of summer,
soaks the earth in its persistent falling from a woolly sky
heavy with moisture imported from a place far away.

Those who know tell us it will rain for days
as the west burns in the unrelieved heat of the sun –
... Continue →

We Greet the Solstice

by Avra Margariti in Issue Five, July 2022

Inside extant skulls of extinct giants
We’ve made our homes for many a summer
Solstice. Wildflower wreaths, crowns, garlands
Ornament the colorlessness of bone,
Our way of giving thanks to the earth
For not having annihilated our kind just yet.

On... Continue →

The Artemis Accords*

by Lynne Sargent in Issue Five, July 2022

Like old kings come together
in agreement of a contest
so long as the princess-prize
goes home with one of them.

Now it is your turn
for nations to fight
over the pillaging of your body.

The only questions remaining are:
Who... Continue →

Introspection

by Alexander Etheridge in Issue Five, July 2022

Hell-storm overtaking the hills,
the blistering winds come forever now.

Listen in the new black dawn
to the end of space and time.

Hellfire all around, a hurricane of dirt and splinters.
The seas dried up just before the sun was lost.
Continue →

Blood, Roses, Song

by Vanessa Fogg in Issue Five, July 2022

Roses without thorns, blooming and wet with dew.
A garden of sweetness
A song without bitterness
A bird pouring out its heart at dawn
Song pure and weightless in the trembling air.

There were songs, there were birds, there was a forest.
A tower... Continue →