Issues

Hanna Komar

Do this:

come for a visit,

sit before them,

say, “I need to talk

to you”,

and start crying.

Cry for everything

they haven’t been for you,

cry that they

never grew up

and didn’t protect you

from themselves, 

that you cannot lean on them,

that staring out the window

is more amusing 

than being in their space.

“I’m so just like you”

A. Jenson

wearing her pink sweatshirt at the film screening—

My soft-spoken partner corrected her saying

“Abortion is a people’s issue, actually…

“not just a women’s issue”

squeezing my hand.

But she spent ten puffed-up minutes

berating him

misgendering me, and—

I kid you not—telling us about being a feminist

long before [we] were even born!

The world is run by […]

Jarek Jarvis

O’ America

where a five

-thousand pound

killing machine

is required anytime

you need to buy

bread, or milk,

really anything.

America,

the dream.

we make

ourselves

miserable

then patent

and sell the

cure for ten times the profit

point. Nothing

ever sticks though.

Not the pot

not the pills

the new car

or smart watch.

We build up not out. Embrace

the sprawl.

Don’t stop

to meet

our neighbors

Mine, I am

convinced

are sentient space fog that

only assume

corporeal form

behind the

closed door

of their

box. I never

knock.

Jeanne Morel and Anthony Warnke

May their memory
be a blessing / their era-
sure revolution

you said you were sure you were
sure when I asked if you’re

a tad uneasy
orange skies w/ out sunset
as concept, in fact

I rhyme hunger with numbers
subtract the absurdity

If when then how long
what adds […]

Mary McCarthy

Why do you have to

parade your faith

use it like a sledgehammer

smashing all the windows

you don’t want anyone to see?

Your invitation to pray

is more an edict

than suggestion

spoiling my lunch

inspiring only my anger

and no gratitude.

You are so smug in your

cloak of righteousness

feeling it a license to oppress.

Your grace is more offensive

than any drag queen

story time—all the posturing

Rodrigo Toscano

This shade-casting magnolia’s 

               getting involved

with your breathing

Or is it better put

               was always involved

with your breathing

This shade-casting magnolia 

               is oblivious to 

poetic encirclement

Or is it better put 

               becoming aware of

escape routes

___

You’re reading about colonialism, again?

You’re writing about material entanglement?

You’re vocalizing Empire’s crack up, again?

___

Shaded and shading magnolias 

               maybe like twenty

after […]

Roger Anderson Alluring cocoons offer their special seduction and shelter

from within soft, warm cotton-like hollows

yet a price must be surrendered

it comes at a silent cost

unspoken

to those who seek special warmth

the surrender of one’s soul

is a forever thing

to be tasted, coddled.

sacrifice is a dear price

yet how dear is delight

when one has hunger

and shivers for crumbs

held in a colorless hand

go ahead

you have waited far too long […]

Rosalie Hendon

No box to check.

Whether filling out the Census

or the intake form at the dentist.

I (of course) don’t have this issue.

There’s always a box for white people.

Before you, I never realized

the list of boxes wasn’t enough.

It’s easy on our census, you say.

White, indigenous, mestizo–-

Mixed. Like most of Ecuador.

Latino isn’t an option here, to your frustration.

I get tripped up, trying to explain ethnicity vs. race.

At the dentist, you write in

“South American.”

On the US Census, you check “other,”

write in “mestizo: indigenous and European descent”

in […]

Julianna May

They diagnosed allergies

as soon as you were born

severe nasal drip and stuffy nose

would occur as soon

as you stepped outdoors

so you grew up pressing

nose to glass – smooshed cheeks

trying to glance down the street

and still couldn’t breathe – you

piled up tissues mounted with mucus.

When the coughing fits started

the doctor was pressed – were you

stealthily sneaking outside, sniffing roses?

he prescribed a bubble –

like an inflatable hamster ball