"I like dahlias," I told him. "Red.
Big bloody flowers on my bedside table
Like organs in a jar."
Sammy Aiko
Image: Moths, Noor Rekhi (Fall 2023)
“a vase is beautiful, painted, / bursting with life and the stems shoved down its throat…”
Reema Saleh
Image: Carolyn Hammond, 蜻蜓 (Spring 2019)
“…The water, still cold from springtime, washes over her toes. A breeze pulls strings of dark hair from her updo and blows them in every direction. But she’s not annoyed by it: the wind is free, just like he had said. Yako tucks the strands back behind her ears and peeks over her shoulder.…”
Anna Moise
Image: Perri Wilson, Waders (Spring 2019)
“I witnessed the eater of exotic cheese, / the drinker of priceless wine, the man / of modern appetite adorned in jewels…”
Matthew James Hodgson
Image: Tatiana Goderstad, Pryce over Denver (Spring 2017)
“…I got some tea and lemon and went to my station at checkout line 2. It was different. There was a plexiglass cage around me. I had to move one side to get in.… I kept breathing the same air through my mask and also through the plexiglass cage. It tasted stale.…”
Renee Kenny
Image: Frankie Fung, Fall (Spring 2017)
“shredded from days the pastures / and cornfields and tending to sheep / you’ve landed in a big city…”
Rachel Wan
Image: Charlie Lewis, Leaking (Spring 2019)
“The tree outside my window and my father are both balding….”
Claire Levin
Image: Luke Ehlers, Vastness (Winter 2018)
“The left side of a decapitated unicorn lay / prostrate in my bowl between all of the grain.”
Claire Levin
Image: Dasha, Russian Blues #4 (Spring 2019)
“meanwhile the wolves take their tea by candlelight, golden before the world knew the Polaroid, when birds / fell from the sky in the exact places where skyscrapers would someday be.”
Sammy Aiko
Image: Shivraj Grewal, Lamp Post (Spring 2017)
“A philodendron sat on his windowsill, exploding green leaves and vines halfway to the floor, like a tired firework. He didn’t have much furniture, or anything, really. I left my coat and bag on the hardwood floor. My shoes were already off.”
Henry Hua
Image: Grace Hauck, Blurry Lines (Spring 2017)
“I am the dogbirth tree with deep, twisted roots and thick skinned leaves that make sounds when you bite into them. I bit them often as a child in the years before the fruit bloomed, a ritual enacted in both sweet curiosity and feral greed.”
Jerusha Crone
Image: Charlie Lewis, Hunger: Crushed (Fall 2018)
“Fall descended on campus like a cold dream and I felt like I was losing myself in the transition.”
Chandler James
Image: Victoria Constant, Washington Park (Winter 2018)
“We sit and soak in rain. / Below us, the city spreads, / a sea-locked soggy legoland.”
Alia Shahzad
Image: Emma Smith, Fire (Winter 2018)
“All the love that can’t be returned / has pooled to level.”
Marco Harnam Kaisth
Image: Jessica Hwang, Fishermen by the Discoveries Monument, where the Tagus flows into the Atlantic (Winter 2018)
“and when it is July / and we are trying to get to Riis Beach by counting train cars / at Utica Avenue so we can all get on in the same place / and somehow, we are all there because of you…”
Sofiy Inck
Image: Geoffrey Baring, On a Wire (Spring 2019)
“I fell in love with you because you take ants outside. / The first time you were deep in a crouch on the kitchen floor…”
Claire Levin
Image: Nathaniel Bolter, Cold Spring Park (Spring 2019)
“Before the bright, little worms get to dance in the corners of your vision, / and before the tinny flute gets to whistle just outside your head…”
Sofiy Inck
Image: Jessica Xia, Restless (Winter 2020)
“We all lived a halflife in the bodies of our mothers. / She carried a whole half of you before you arrived.”
Sofiy Inck
Image: Amelia Frank, Native (Winter 2018)
“Flags throwing haymakers/ at a salt flat sky/ Streets pachinkoed by people and/ siren heat…”
Miles Mikofsky
Image: Andrea Tábora, Fog (Spring 2019)
“Girl sees godly bodies drifting/chit peng,/har peng /asks if they’ll fetch her back to Penang,/where she might eat the haram meat/in the wonton mee, no questions asked…”
Alia Ai-Ming Tehzeeb Shahzad
Image: Víctor Almaraz Argueta, Eckhart Hall, May, 2019
“…As she walked, she noticed the concrete sidewalks matched the coloring on the sky above her. She took comfort in feeling like she was embraced by one collective, the sky and city working together to curate a concert themed gray. She figured her grandmother must hate the cloudy day…”
Sasha Diaz
Image: Dasha Aksenova, russian blues 5 (Spring 2019)
“…Alone in a church,/I feel like I have/To reflect,/On principle/If nothing else…”
Theo Belci
Image: Afreen Ahmed, Water Mirror (Winter 2018)
“Swinging so long/ That my brain becomes soup—/ Spinning like a swatted fly,/ Dizzy like a screaming siren,/ Dizzy like a dentist’s drill,/ So dizzy that I’m out of breath…”
Renee Kenny
Image: Carolyn Hammond, 蜻蜓, (Spring 2019)
“floors/caressing, caressing floors, floors/caressing, caressing floors…"
Aaron Capelli
Image: Teis Jayaswal, Chamber of Ignition (Spring 2019)
“Burt ate all the fucking bees. He said the last time would be the last time…”
Abby Estes & Rachel Wurstner
Image: Adrián Mandeville, The Blob (Spring 2019)
“this is the fourth poem/ i am writing about you. none of the others have/ blossomed into an orchard. the roots are choked/ underfoot with rot. the soil is stillborn, drained/ of meaning…”
Anonymous
Image: Victor Almaraz Argueta, Color Studies 19/01/18-6 (Spring 2019)
“Mama is coming! She sucks each one up,/ gulp gulp gulp, for cannibal breakfast…”
Victoria Constant
Image: Alvin Shi, Triangle Mountain
“White satin coat—/ And pillows for our heads…”
Felipe Urrutia
Image: Haley Wellman, Evolution (Winter, 2018)
“I want to grasp your thumb in my whole / hand. I want someone to see me, / loved…”
Elizabeth Fierro
Image: Elena Whitney, Shadowed (Spring 2019)
“You far superior nugget! no other silhouette compares, / with all your nooks and crannies, / your appendages make for superb rations of dip…”
Sherry Guo
Image: Connor Fieweger, Shh (Spring 2017)
“Thrones of lightwood / sea-glass and sea-weed…”
Aster Taylor
Image: Adrián Mandeville, The Dominion of Light (Winter 2020)
“He has a one syllable laugh / that is released like a sob…”
Susy Liu
Image: Carlotta Verita, Santa Maria del Fiore (Spring 2019)
“You make me want to, / indecisiveness and all, / shave off my eyebrows…”
Nat Nitsch
Image: Giovanna DeCastro, Morning After (Spring 2017)
“She swept the remaining sun- / light straight out the front door…”
Aaron Capelli
Image: Dasha, Russian Blues (Spring 2019)
“A heart-a-day, or playing games; the plain / Before this after dream: mean Hoops, and Wing,…”
E. Le Charmier
Image: Andrea, Tábora, el mercado (Spring 2019)
“Nighttime bathroom trip / I spy on the toilet seat…”
Sophia Fisher
Image: Isaac Tannenbaum, Clenched (Spring 2019)
“A floating, soundless chord breathes / underneath a choir of mist,…”
Amber Keahey
Image: Carlotta Verita, Grand Canyon (Spring 2019)
“Eggs will be children / They will catch dewdrops / On their fingers…”
Jake Weiss
Image: Adrián Mandeville, The Blob (Spring 2019)
“Romance is pretty, romance is sleepy, romance / has pink in all of its eyes. Rumor says our guy is coming / back again tonight…”
Mireille Farjo
Image: Geoffrey Baring, Archer’s Line of Sight (Spring 2019)