edition #005
open category
Meditation by Anna Dodson
i’m thinking of reincarnating as a crouton by Cat Zhou
Birds by Charlotte Moore
The Consonance Between Me and a Sack of Potatoes by Megan Diedericks
spotlight: queer narratology
gender infinity retrospective by Cat Zhou
In the world where you and I live together by Emily Hay
A poem about love & god, but not at the same time by Isabella Kaufman
Honest Confessions on Letting Go by Isabella Nesheiwat
Either | Neither | Both by Wasima Khan
Poem for a 9th grade biology lab in which i dissected a fetal pig & the
classmates who told me i would be too squeamish to do it leaving
the room to throw up by Aliksander Bouzas
extratext
Love inside the walls of conformity by Dalija Konstantinović
Letter from the Editor
written by
Alavara Hatton
managing editor
Dear reader, As I write this, it is still pride month, albeit the tail end; I’m writing a little early this time around, since when you read this, I’ll be moving house. I hope nothing earth-shattering happens to the poetry world in the meantime!
I don’t know if this has been a universal experience, but pride month has felt a bit muted this year…
Meditation
by Anna Dodson
Would you like to split a mango
with me? It’s election
night. His laptop displays a map
of America, greyed out,
waiting for the future. He portions
each half as he recites
…
Honest Confessions on Letting Go
by Isabella Nesheiwat
(or)
FALLING IN AND OUT OF LOVE WITH A CONFUSED TWENTY-SOMETHING SEMI-CLOSETED LESBIAN
(or)
I CAN USUALLY TELL IN THE FIRST FIFTEEN MINUTES IF SOMETHING'S GONNA WORK OUT FOR THE LONG HAUL SO WHY'D I EVER BOTHER WITH THIS ONE
…
gender infinity retrospective
and one other poem by Cat Zhou
i. time travel / slow burn / sappy / self-insert / confessions
lurk on tumblr for grey matter density. slash as neuroplasticity. anti-materialist possibility in a html compendium. reload to render. aestheticise the
…
Either | Neither | Both
by Wasima Khan
There was no word
for what you were
in your mother’s tongue.
…
A poem about love & god, but not at the same time
by Isabella Kaufman
I swear someday I will sit in our living room,
my notional bay window come to life, surrounded
by old furniture and the unraveled threads
…
In the world where you and I live together
by Emily Hay
it is my south London when I step out the door
but dreamtime when you do, close by Hampstead Heath.
Your friends tele-transport here, come bearing gifts –
…
Love inside the walls of conformity
written by
Dalija Konstantinović
Should poetry and art be confined by a firm set of rules? Or should it be left to follow whatever one’s heart desires? It’s an age-old question, a standard that changes with each new movement. Creating new ones and forcing the rest to abide by them, which leads to a new group of artists (poets in this matter) breaking the rules and crafting something different…
Birds
by Charlotte Moore
The overhead wires get mixed up
in the branches of trees that are
Utterly bare. Sunset like a barcode.
…
The Consonance Between Me and a Sack of Potatoes
by Megan Diedericks
There is a sack of potatoes in the kitchen.
At the back, it warns:
“Keep me closed
…
Poem for a 9th grade biology lab in which I dissected a fetal pig & the classmates who told me I would be too squeamish to do it leaving the room to throw up
by Aliksander Bouzas
I am sinking into the inky earth of the New York State Highway.
Appalachia rots in the rearview, clouds’ rough edges rip at the sky.
I think of the first time I dissected something living, then dead, inedible,
suspended in formaldehyde, frozen for the sole purpose of my education.
How I was dissected on that operating table, all the times I’ve lived there,