Andrew McFadyen-Ketchum: Heaven-Fire
The boy is not my blood
Though “Son” is the only name I have for “He-
Who-Will-Dance-To-Just-About-Anything,”
Carol Frost: Scorn
How had they not been wounded? And wounded they’d convalesced in the same rooms
and bed.
Wayne Karlin: Because You Are Not Here
Because you are not here
you are always here
Michael Simms: Portrait of Unknown Couple
He sketched in charcoal
the arch of a shoulder
the movement of a hand
the woman’s head
turned and tilted slightly
toward the man
Bhikshuni Sama: Without Argument
When I was young, my mother told me that I would find true happiness only in marriage.
Edison Jennings: Homebound
it wasn’t death that did them part
(that came later), but the lifeguard
at the public pool who parted them
quite easily
Megan Merchant / Luke Johnson: Origin Story (An Epistolary Dialogue)
From our window, grosbeaks
and buntings tangle into flight. The hours count
earlier now, because of the way they are lit.