Yahya Frederickson: Green
On the verge of June, a man
promenades a metal cart
piled with ‘aujah, the name
for almonds before they
are almonds.
Sara R. Burnett: English II
my student, not yet a man, sits
in front of me in a country, not yet
his home, a country who doesn’t see him
or even me, sometimes, and I wonder
what can he learn that he doesn’t know from me.
Kathy Fish: Collective Nouns for Humans in the Wild
Humans in the wild, gathered and feeling good, previously an exhilaration, now: a target.
Conrad Aiken: Summer
the vascular jukebox throbs and sobs
expounding hope propounding yearning
proposing love, but never learning
Tony Gloeggler: Hardly Talking
I’ll give up and lie,
promise, that yes, his friend
will be back tomorrow.
Barbara Hamby: Ode to Barbecue
We are lost again in the middle of redneck nowhere,
which is a hundred times scarier
than any other nowhere because everyone has guns.
Dawn Potter: A Small Celebration of Baron Wormser and Teresa Carson
Lived-Time, Art-Time, and Friendship
Michael Simms: The northern forests are burning
Here, 500 miles away
Smoke hangs over our valley
Paul Laurence Dunbar: We Wear the Mask
We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
Richard Foerster: Grindadráp, 9/12/21
How tidy the aftermath of today’s slaughter,
how precise the tally, a record: 1428
slick hulls, black as polished onyx
Carol Moldaw: Road Trip to Planned Parenthood
Only one hazmat-suited
protester outside the two-block buffer zone
shouldered a sign stapled to a plywood cross
that proclaimed a woman’s regret inevitable.
Baron Wormser: On Moral Grounds
One can be humbled into silence and one can be humbled into words. Or one can feel both—the silence that underlies the words.
Elizabeth Romero: Dear Michael
No, no this is important.
This is the dust.
These are the ashes.
And every molecule has a name.
Valerie Segrest: The Many Lives of Water
Water has a living spirit and holds memories from the beginning of time.
