Poetry

What Holds—Christine Himmelfarb

Poetry Issue #9: Open Call November 19th, 2021 November 19th, 2021 What Holds by Christine Himmelfarb What Holds 1. Word Problem Partly it’s a linguistic problem. I don’t like the nominalization, the noun made of a verb. Even the word itself holds within it another noun, the way I did. And then there’s the carriage. A reminder of an empty one. So let’s try an active approach. The verb “miscarry.” I carried incorrectly like a child bearing a watermelon to a picnic, unsteadily and any second ...

The First Thing She Lost—David Duncan

Poetry Issue #9: Open Call November 19th, 2021 November 19th, 2021 the first thing she lost by David Duncan the first thing she lost when you want to remember their name some actor or actress and when it doesn’t come you just let it go it shows up later at some odd time when you walk into a room and you can’t think of why so you go back to what you were doing and then you remember it’s not like that at all it’s like you’re ...

Three Poems—Marceline White

Poetry Issue #9: Open Call November 19th, 2021 November 19th, 2021 Three Poems by Marceline White My Son Studies the Stars He makes calculations: graphs numbers, forms equations of stars in graphite, leaden stars,++math formulas form galaxies— ++++if stars are math, which they ++++are and aren’t. There is a planet, Farout, otherwise known as 2018VG18, which was recently found. Or rather, recently discovered. ++++It was not lost. I study letters, which I assemble and reassemble into formulas, forming words that re- present the world: creating form from 26 letters rearranged into: ++++universe; galaxies; stars. My ...

Endangered Persons—Sara Simone Barenfeld

Poetry Issue #9: Open Call November 19th, 2021 November 19th, 2021 Two Poems by Sara Simone Barenfeld Endangered Persons Can you tell me What it is about me That makes you Want to shoot me Is it my soothing voice My loving arms My big smile Or my black skin Is it because I am The same color As your gun Or your heart Mama told us Hands up, don’t shoot But you could Find another way Can you tell me What is it about me That makes you Want to shoot me Openly Wholeheartedly Without Hesitation So that my arms And ...

Golden Shovel Poems—Cathy Barber

Poetry Issue #9: Open Call November 19th, 2021 November 19th, 2021 Golden Shovel Poems by Cathy Barber Fibromyalgia ++++a golden shovel after Sappho fragment #4* Today I watch detective shows. On the couch for ten hours amid a pile of things: a book, a cup of coffee, the remote. Two soft pillows beneath my head. My body needs a cushion to get through this day, many days, and here I lie. I am a lucky person. I will be able to soothe my spirits with ...

When I Tell the PA—Ron Riekki

Poetry Issue #9: Open Call November 19th, 2021 November 19th, 2021 When I Tell the PA That I’m Shaking, Constantly Shaking, He Says, by Ron Riekki When I Tell the PA That I’m Shaking, Constantly Shaking, He Says, “Show me.” He says it like he is sick of me already. He just met me, already sick of me. The VA is full. The VA’s stomach is full of people. So many are homeless. They see me as homeless. They hate the homeless. ...

Love Lost & Found: For Qi Hong—Yuan Changming

Poetry Issue #9: Open Call November 19th, 2021 November 19th, 2021 Love Lost & Found: For Qi Hong by Yuan Changming Love Lost & Found: For Qi Hong 1. Missing in Missed Moments Each time I miss you ++++A bud begins to bloom ++So you are surrounded by flowers Everywhere you go Each time I miss you ++++A dot of light pops up ++So you are illuminated by a whole sky Of stars through the night 2. The Soft Power What softens ++++++++A human heart is Neither money nor ...

Protected: PSM 9 Poetry Template

Poetry Issue #9: Open Call November 19th, 2021 November 19th, 2021 Poem Title or # by Author Voice It is raw. Purpled and chafed thin, worn and warned. It denotes mere meemies before white coats: ++++++++another Medicaid queen to diagnose. It is tight. Squeezed fingers dig with nails that pierce the silence and trust that whatever pain I’m in, ++++++++it’s better than treatment in this skin. It is sore. It has hollered and howled, generations of harvests and fibroids and is now a high-pitched white noise— ++++++++bloody murder into the void. It ...

Poetry Issue #9: Open Call November 19th, 2021 November 19th, 2021 Poetry Letter from the Poetry Editor: A Requiem’s Saving Grace What Holds | Christine Himmelfarb Golden Shovel Poems | Cathy Barber My Son Studies the Stars, Smoke, ++++and Johns Hopkins Sues Patients... | Marceline White Inheritance, After the Diagnosis, ++++and Return to Water | Sarath Reddy A Poet Homeschools, Week 2: Biology ++++and Coast Guard Beach... | Kasha Martin Gauthier the first thing she lost | David Duncan Do You See the Stars?, Drag ...

Life as a Oak, at Recovery—Jonathan B. Aibel

Poetry Issue #8: Rest & Recovery August 19th, 2021 August 19th, 2021 Life as an Oak, at Recovery by Jonathan B. Aibel Life as an Oak, at Recovery Forenoon is a wholeness the greening sun lifts from soil turned in the twist and chew of earthworms, sunlight reaching through open branches shaken by squirrels, gypsy moth carried by redwing blackbird, a beak full of lunch. I walk the air paper-winged. In night’s revolve, the bats flicker uneven in circles, frogs croak blue, trees charcoal webbed by ...