Issue 26

The night I told you my dad is sick
you drove me to get ice cream at three a.m.
But we’re dumb and disoriented and we end up
on the wrong side of this kick-around town.

I cry when you look away- I accidentally
stole a Twix. I ruin the simple things.

I tell you how the sickness is on the inside
and you hold me close, whispering-
your dad is sick too, but not in the same way.
Last year you promised we’d go
to Al-Anon together- we never did.

Now you write me emails with the header:
I hate you– still answering my music questions.
Now your dad is long gone and mine’s
buying lost time. Back then we tried
telling each other we look nothing like them.

In a Zesto’s parking lot I told you I was worried.
This time I did the holding, you sobbing
Into my jacket. You didn’t know if anyone cared.
You tried things at parties and they made
you feel free and now you just feel alone.

We’re healing our insides now.
You sing that song with my name
in it and we roll down our windows
When it’s snowing.

 

 

 

Lucy Somers is a Midwestern poet who is deeply inspired by her natural surroundings and familial bonds. Common themes in her work are: grief, connection, and coming of age.

 

hours have passed once I come to
from a midday caffeine crash

It’s not that I dislike this professor,
it’s that my mind wanders to other places,
far away states, which might as well be other countries

I miss him, I do
even now my thoughts take me back
to memories which I’m unsure if they even occurred.

Have I been sitting in this building for eight hours? maybe I’m suffocating myself with this mask.
Do you remember wearing a mask?
I hope you have no idea what I’m talking about.

I can see right outside, through the floor-to-ceiling windows, yet I’m longing for whatever is out there.
Maybe there’s something I’m missing, a detail I can’t recognize from here.

Sometimes my heart pounds when we’re five minutes till class ends. Anticipation? Anxiety?
Sure, for what though?

It’s now time to leave,
my mind moves faster than my feet and I’m on the bridge,
No,
I’m close to the bridge.

It’s the hour before sunset
and I think I stopped walking.
I’m standing here, gazing up at the high sun in the high sky,
the movement of people blurs into my periphery,
the sound of cars a slight humming in my eardrum.

Am I here or am I there?

Did I ever really leave Santa Cruz?
Am I still there, walking with him up 41st Avenue,
where I stopped to take a picture of a bird of paradise plant because we don’t have those where
I’m from and
oh we both love plants so much
you didn’t even complain. That’s what I love about you.

I’m in that condo your friends rich aunt owns and
oh it’s so cold when I wake up but I’m happy because you’re
sound asleep downstairs and the birds are chirping and I can’t
feel my toes but it doesn’t matter.

There’s a bird of paradise right out the front door and even though it’s dying it’s still the most
beautiful plant I’ve ever seen because
we don’t have those where I’m from.

I’m standing on the bridge,
in front of the gym. The high sun in the high sky is tired
so it’s coming down from a long day of work,
like all of us. It’s trying to tell me something
I can’t hear over the roar of rush hour traffic.
I chase after it,
it’s begging me to listen.
It’s begging to tell me that
in this final hour between
Day and Night,
something, anything could happen

 

Sometimes Ethan writes silly little poems to cope with this silly little world. He’s graduating from Towson University May 2022

who told you that you had to aim to make art beautiful?
to disappear an entire essence of your being.
to pretend your heart isn’t ugly some days.
bitter, envious, self-deprecating.
we create a world of lust for things that only exist in waves.
beauty only exists in waves.
and sometimes it’s not even real.
the darkness is necessary too.
your painful thoughts are just as powerful as your good ones.
who told you that you couldn’t be human.
you can.
create art that represents your entire being
not just the parts cut into sizes that they can swallow.
let them choke on your anger.
let them wince from the pain of your pain.
leave your heart on the page and only come back to pick it up if you want to.
don’t be afraid to leave paranoia on the canvas.
despair on the mic.
don’t box your complexities into something more presentable.
don’t twist your loneliness into something more poetic.
exist as your entire being.
throw your fear to the wolves.
reject the idea of mistakes in your art.
they don’t exist. but you do. let the world feel you.
while you let yourself feel the world.
you are an artist.
in your own imperfect way, you are art.
even on your most insecure days.
remember that.

 

Kyra Horton is a twenty-year old creator. Whether expressing herself through writing, performing, or painting, she strives to turn pain into beauty. Her identity as a young Black woman from Chicago shapes her work. She grew up being inspired by activism and solidarity in her community and the arts. Kyra is fearless in the avenues she seeks in order to create the emotions painted in her heart. The world is Kyra’s canvas, as well as her muse. Her primary medium of creativity is spoken word poetry. Kyra has performed at over 50 different events since beginning her poetry career 5 years ago. Kyra published her first poetry book called Cries of a Butterfly, wrote and produced her album of poetry called The Silencer, released an EP of poetry called Tears Of Gold, and published poetry for the Gate Newspaper and the nonprofit organization Sixty Inches From Center. She has led writing workshops as well as participated in journalism cohorts to cultivate her skills.

In the native tongue of my ancestors,
Love has three words

Pyaar, mohabbat, ishq
Pyaar, mohabbat, ishq

 Mera pyaar tumhaare li hai
My love is for you

Soft syllables spilled from my mother’s lips
Sweet as the golden nectar of mango lassi

The delicate parting of lips
Crafting poetry with vowel and breath

Pehli si mohabbat
First love

The dawn of a heart’s blooming
The birth of a heart’s withering

Fleeting memories sealed with broken tears
For this is bittersweet hope the heart cries

 Ishq-e-illahi
Love for Allah

Tender and raw
The bruised and torn search

His mercy, the ocean’s abundance
Where unspoken duas sail upon

Pyaar, mohabbat, ishq
Pyaar, mohabbat, ishq

 And thus, from native soil my ancestors laced
With swollen palms and nimble fingers

The rich tapestry of love
Bridal crimson kissing sunbaked auburn

Heartbeats woven with footsteps
Anguish woven with stillness

 Breath and lip interlacing
With accent and diction

To birth love in its wholeness
To birth love in its entirety

For love they believed
Was meant to be felt, not defined

Pyaar, mohabbat, ishq
Pyaar, mohabbat, ishq.

 

Rimel Kamran is a current junior and the Cincinnati Youth Poet Laureate. Her poetry aims to build community, celebrate diversity, and share her Pakistani-American identity. She hopes to share her love for poetry, especially with youth, and encourage them to seek the unheard poem within them. When she’s not writing she enjoys pursuing her interests in science and medicine.

I.New Moon
As day tumbles into night
I tumble to her
Searching for craters in those (perfect) pupils

II. Waxing Crescent
The movie projector flickers on her face like lightning
I consider how it would feel to take her hand
And roam the smooth crescents of her French manicure

III. First Quarter
She cuts the bundt cake in half with a butter knife
And gives me the bigger slice
Cheers, she smiles, tapping together their vanilla-frosted tops

IV. Waxing Gibbous
Her helmet glints as she unbuckles it
Reaching into her basket for a bouquet
Of red tulips

V.  Full Moon
Oh, come down to me,
Her lips are an ode to gravity
The tides find the grass and the ancient columns of
Aphrodite

VI. Waning Gibbous
I crunch my teeth into her microwave popcorn
Loud enough to almost avoid hearing that she is leaving for school this week
And didn’t I know that this was inevitable?

VII. Third Quarter
Six o’clock at the diner
I memorize the menu and refresh my lemonade until my mouth sours
Her red bike never shows

VIII. Waning Crescent
The vase leaves a watermark waning on the kitchen table
Tulip petals curling on the floor

 

 

 

Elena Yeatts-Lonske is currently studying English and Creative Writing at the University of Maryland. When not writing, she can be found painting, watching romantic comedies, acting, and cuddling with her dogs.

 

Taken out of context, I am almost a creature you could love.
I’ve been studying it and I’m surely very close, if you think about it
With some fine-tuning and a little adjustment, I could be really good,
or at least get most of the way there.

Taken out of context, you are almost a wound that could heal.
In the right lighting, with the right angles, you’re almost benign,
my darling tumor, my cancer and blight. If I just
thought about it the right way, I’m sure you could be
excised from my body and my flesh, carved out
like a bruise from a peach, scarified.

As it is, there’s not much either of us can do, except eat each other alive.
It’s the only way forward under the circumstances. I’ll savor it,
dear, being the blood staining your teeth, being the flesh under your nails.
Promise me you’ll take your time in unraveling me,
muscle from muscle, bone from bone, and I promise
not to take it for granted.

 

 

Amo O’Neil is a Chinese-American poet from the Bay Area with an interest in film. She’s an alum of Kenyon Young Writers and the Iowa Young Writers Workshop.