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October 2023

Cover artist: Carlo Cadenas

By nature, we poets tend many unquenchable flames.
Kiki Petrosino

Patricia Spears Jones
CooXooEii Black
Kimiko Hahn
Ray González
Paul Guest

See Table of Contents

From this Issue

- poem
  
  I Am Trying to Love the Whole World
  
  By Jenny Browne
  
  is such a public display of affection, a flex even,
  one the lone magpie staring back from the backside
  
  of a badly shorn sheep finds suspect. I flap my arms
  & blink three times. Bad luck to glimpse just one.
  
  Magpie being the only...
  
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- poem
  
  Sidewalk
  
  By Richard Siken
  
  I crawled to the front door and swung it open so the ambulance could find me. It seemed like a strange thing to do, since I hadn’t called for an ambulance, so I crawled to the end of the sidewalk...
  
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- poem
  
  Abuelo,
  
  By Gabriel Ramirez
  
  I couldn’t be who I am
  today if it wasn’t for you
  being dead. It was time
  for glitter, nail polish, and locs.
  Glitter in my nail polish.
  Glitter in my locs.
  You wouldn’t have
  loved me loving myself;
  my joy rendered
  inconvenience.
  Sucked teeth keeping me
  your grandson.
  My love for...
  
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Table of Contents

Poems

Adrian Matejka
- Editor’s Note
Jenny Browne
- I Am Trying to Love the Whole World
- I Am Trying to Love the Whole World
Richard Siken
- Sidewalk
- Metonymy
Gabriel Ramirez
- Abuelo,
- Pops Dead Four Months. Remembering Pops Taught Me to Float on My Back. Watching “Moonlight” on My Delta Flight After Leaving Abuela Ana’s Casket with Abuelo’s in Santiago, Dominican Republic.
Shira Erlichman
- Bikin’ I’m Bikin’
- You on a Table in Someone Else’s Hands
Henneh Kyereh Kwaku
- In Praise
- A short note on writing a joyful poem
CooXooEii Black
- On Mindfulness
- Some Notes on Vision
Natalie Shapero
- First of December
- Slip
Ray González
- El Paso
- Fire Bird
Oliver Baez Bendorf
Erin Marie Lynch
- Removal Act
Tianna Bratcher
- Water of the womb
Paul Guest
- Some Things I Would Like to Forget about America
Kyle Okeke
- Matthew 6:28—Sonnets
- Butterflies
Paul Celan
- Todesfuge
- Todesfuge
Dean Rader
- On “Todesfuge”
Ishion Hutchinson
- The Anabasis of Godspeed
Patricia Spears Jones
Stacie Cassarino
- In the House by the Sea
Jordan Pérez

HARD FEELINGS

Richard Siken
- On Perplexity: Chrysanthemum
Kate Durbin
- On Boredom: How I Found Out My Parents Were Siblings
Kiki Petrosino
- On Crestfallenness: A Pilgrim, Not a Tractor

RUTH LILLY POETRY PRIZE

NOT TOO HARD TO MASTER

Kimiko Hahn

Contributors