Richard Siken
I have my body and you have yours. / Believe it if you can. Negative space is silly. / When you bang on the wall you have to remember / you’re on both sides of it already but go ahead, / yell at yourself. Some people don’t understand / anything.
Stevie Edwards
I keep saying this isn’t even my death / to grieve, really, / and grieve a little more.
Brandon Amico
I can’t shake the feeling / there’s something I’m supposed / to forget or else have forgotten / to recall, and I recall / the cool sun sliding into / my mouth and little else.
Lillian-Yvonne Bertram
At the top of the hill in the forest at night we are standing face to face as the moon wavers behind a small cloud and when I say no to the baby he pulls a gun and shoots me in the stomach.
Daniil Kharms
Because of me, Marina Petrovna turned completely bald – bald like a baby’s bottom. It happened like this: I went over to visit Marina Petrovna, and bang! she lost all her hair. And that was that.
Hannah Gamble
At the Casa Grande disco, men hold on / to other men’s behinds, and women / hold on to men’s behinds, / and everyone is holding on / to what it means to be dancing / and holding on
L.S. McKee
An unsmashed window. It arrived / cumbersome and clear. My father stumbling under its weight: / the veins of his forehead like lightning as the house shook / from its last silence.
Lillian-Yvonne Bertram
I crisscross the stacks / searching for my mother / and father. The librarian / tells me they boarded / the other plane / that already took off. / This library is an airplane / I do not want to be on / but the doors are locked / and in fact / the librarian states, / we too have taken off. /