She sits on her haunches, arms resting / on her knees, a shawl about her / made of whatever you see—cloud, / sheepskin, rough-spun wool, draped / seaweed.
The Hag of Beara
Sugar Beets
Driving the narrow / two-lane between / Saginaw and Lansing / in late autumn, / past fields frozen in harvest furrows
Book Review: Fractures, by Carlos Andrés Gómez
It is clear to see why Fractures was the Winner of the Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry, selected by Natasha Trethewey. It is emotional and raw in its delivery of profoundly looking into the past while keeping the reader rooted in the present’s social struggles.
Two Poems
I don’t mean to be ungrateful. / I was bred for wanting more, the way / a racehorse is bred for the win’s scent.
2020 Pushcart Prize Nominees
Congratulations to all of our 2020 Pushcart Prize nominees!
8 Parables to Keep You Safe, Defy Aging, & Banish Evil
We look for the things that are irretrievable / in these minor folds of solitude. We fire, / we flood, we famine.
Service Hymn
The star spangled banner blared at the start / and end of each day, and the spot / where we stood when it began was where / we’d stand for the duration.
Three Poems
God says words in Night that Night don’t know / how to hold so it gives’em to me.
Elegy on the Mourning of My Death
Elders have stopped reading the news. We dream / of serious play down on our knees— / cat’s eyes, jacks, the kiss that’s for keeps.
Psaltery & Lyre 