January 20, 2021 | Poetry
Don’t Drink the Kool-Aid
Danielle P. Williams
after Ruby/Hilary
For just
fifteen seconds
out of my twenty-
six years living
I imagine
myself
a white woman
bones breaking
in a new way
my
Superstitious Asians
Shin Yu Pai
if it were untrue, I might have been
less mad; I am the best of drivers
tiger mother, paper tiger, full
of slant, piss and vinegar
that occasion of our first big fight,
he connoted with a
A Brief History of a Room
Ahmad Adedimeji Amobi
I packed into this room during my second year's semester break of university. For all the years before, I slept with my mother upstairs. Our building is a three-story building built with rocks and
INTERNET GIRLFRIEND
Stephanie Athena Valente
two seasons of sabrina,
the teenage witch
under my belt
i’m feeling powerful
i sign on AIM after 9pm
dial up noises are wands
just a secret crush
it’s always nice,
talking to you,
Genius Loci
Brittany Ackerman
She imagined walking barefoot across the grass in the backyard, sitting in the hammock and reading that book her teacher from graduate school had published.
Dead Dog Spot
Cory Bennet
The landscape was a flat dimension, no mountains or hills. Farmland and ramshackle homes that looked like collages, you could see the years in them.
272-DATE
Sarah Sweeney
Before the landline was obsolete, Nathan and I lived for late night 272-DATE commercials, our city’s own hotline of lust. You had to be 18 or older to call and of course we weren’t, yet I knew to make
Without A Happy Ending
Sara Tabin
The diary didn’t have many entries, but it revealed how lonely Sarah had felt.
Culler Release Program
Joshua English
Usually I’d just as soon look away from cruelty, but Lemuel flung that chicken square at my face and my first instinct was to swat her, fretting her clipped wings and shrieking like a raspy old woman, down on the heads of the others. Simple reflex.
The First Execution
Scott Laudati
For a few years, before Carl’s dad won a scratch-off ticket and no one ever saw him again, I called Carl my best friend.
Shake-n-Bake Time
Tom Walsh
We laughed when he called it a “Shake-n-Bake,” but then looked nervously around the room; the crew veterans weren’t laughing.
Spark Hunter: Secret Life of a Matchmaker
Anuja Varghese
Hey girl, heard you’re on the job hunt—and the place I work is hiring! It’s a bit weird, but… Do you want to be a matchmaker?
Club Tabu
Jillian Luft
We lost my dad somewhere under the blacklights of Club Tabu.
Dates with Charlie
Julie Goldberg
Charlie would never cannibalize me; he’d have nothing to eat.
A List of Good Enough Things
Shreya Vikram
My happiest memories all involve an intense desire to be strangled.
Verdugo
Mackenzie Moore
I do not want to talk about how I need to drink more water. The Doctor in Her Eighth Year of Practice has already told me, in so many words, that the life I save might be my own.
i want you to love me lyrics - Google Search
emilie kneifel
after fiona apple
i've waited many years— i didn’t know i was waiting— my myself waited til no one was looking, and it ran, and it ran and—
all my selves run from me. when i look up they’re
Hug Your Mad
Sarah Fawn Montgomery
Mama says mad freezes your face, so little girls with feelings be careful. Anger shows ugly over time, lines between your brows or pulling down the corners of your mouth. Girls should smile, say
Hockenheimring
Sam Farahmand
On Sunday morning, at eight central in middle Tennessee, I watch the Grand Prix. This season is the 70th anniversary of the FIA Formula One World Championship, which feels like enough of a reason to
Meet 2020’s Most Nonessential Santas
Tyler Barton and Erin Dorney
This is the Santa crushing it on Etsy.
This is the Santa denied unemployment.
This is the Santa whose Zoom background brought his therapist to tears.
This Santa doesn’t give a shit—he’s a