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The International Metatron Poetry Prize Finalists ❋ THINKING IN PUBLIC ❋ Molly Schaeffer

When I think of the possibility of dissolving I don’t have a problem with the action. The problem arises when I begin thinking about the residue that I might leave behind

The International Metatron Poetry Prize Finalists ❋ DON’T ASK DO TELL ❋ Noah Sparrow

The colour I breathe in has turned purple. This is because in a day or two, I have already washed our towels, and you will get groceries, and you’ll go to the market, down the river

The International Metatron Poetry Prize Finalists ❋ FOOL’S ERRAND ❋ Casper Lucia

I want something from you I can’t get because what I want from you is me

The International Metatron Poetry Prize Finalists ❋ FULL BLEED ❋ Stevie Belchak

A belief rises in me that all light is still somehow reaching my object, person, shimmering arms

BANKSIDE ANXIETY ❋ Shams Hanieh

I slither through the static of the city that raised me, searching for its centre.

UNTITLED ❋ Sara Sutterlin

We are two little sweaty egos I watch you kiss the inside of my thighs like you’re doing it to Someone Else

SPECTACLE WORK ❋ Georgia Faust

I told you the underthings are fireproof, proof of storm, proof of changeling channeling the natural disaster tourism board.

WHAT MY HAIR SAYS ABOUT YOU ❋ Laura Theobald

so what i’m saying is is anybody awake in the year 2000 and are you wearing the skin of someone or any skin

DIVIDE THE HOOF ❋ Sarah Jean Grimm

If I imagine these things are paper and gloss I can get off on my own lack My moods are many animals

BOND “GIRLS” PT. 2: ESTRELLA ❋ Sennah Yee

I used to like it when you’d call me mysterious. Mysterious is oxblood lipstick

DO YOU FEEL AT HOME HERE ❋ Liz Bowen

holler at the bouncer who threw out my attacker— make kissy noises at the zodiac— whistle at jupiter’s thick thighs— holler at my cryptic emails— catcall my careerism

IN THE RADIANT AFTERSTORM ❋ Aja Moore

I repurpose a word a place a phrase an act my whole fucking body

ANNIE ❋ Francesca Kritikos

we cut ourselves open and replaced our sulphurous citydirt blood with cheap ice cream and cigarettes we smoked sitting by the river that smells like shit

LATE PRAYER ❋ Erin Robinsong

May our weapons be effective feminine inventions that like life. May we blow up like weeds, and be medicinal and everywhere.

DAYDREAM IN ULTRALIGHT BEAMS ❋ Precious Okoyomon

soon we will be better no more problems no more moss no more burritos

LAST BODIES ❋ hazel avery

and i suffer at the hands of all softness and light still i suffer the existence of a body in any form

WATER SIGNS ❋ Ivanna Baranova

no matter the weather no matter the month when the temperature drops we go coffin shopping at the colour house

LOT ❋ Olivia Wood

Repetition educates and distills, mutes me, I desire it Do you remember desire? How do I write

I AM HERE ❋ Ashley Obscura

Do I perceive reality or do I create it in my mind?

LATE MILLENNIALISM ❋ Rachelle Toarmino

my love language is flower emojis. my kink? when he puts his phone down.

JESSICA GIVES ME A CHILL PILL ❋ Angie Sijun Lou

I keep waking up in different beds and in this same body.

THE TROUBLE WITH WORMHOLES ❋ Damian Rogers

How many times must I learn the lesson of compression?

MOON FACE ❋ Laura Degroot

you have a silver and blue shining face. a stream of light from a nearby star rebounds off the moon

GAY HEAVEN ❋ Zach Blackwood

in the dream. i am swallowed like cotton candy into an adorable 8-foot pink mouth that adores me too

UNTITLED ❋ Sara Sutterlin

I pratice Lying with men It’s easy, it’s all they want to hear

#NOFILTERSKIES ❋ Ben Fama

I’d like to perform something not dominated by industry

HELL LIGHT FLESH [EXCERPT] ❋ Klara du Plessis

Hair has a life of its own. It splits, devilish, two hairs per root

TERMS FOR THE READER (BIG WORDS) ❋ Shazia Hafiz Ramji

I don’t want to call it capitalism. I must articulate it to reclaim —

TEACHING SPANISH IN THE USA ❋ Ana Carrete

A voice appears and asks, “Are you Spanish?” “Are you asking about Race?” comes out of my mouth

BURN IT ALL DOWN WITH WATER ❋ Adèle Barclay

love sometimes dwells with violence even though that isn’t really love

THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A TIME WHEN U WERE NOT BATHED IN STARLIGHT ❋ June Gehringer

hello the sun is a star and also you are made of stars

A WORK NO ONE TOLD YOU ABOUT ❋ Olivia Wood

And my mouth lay still as a fig on the cutting board in June And we fed you something from our fingers once, surely.

GREYHOUND ❋ Aeon Ginsberg

Money moves through the body of people and all there is for me to grasp is myself

KIND OF ANIMAL ❋ Kyla Jamieson

sometimes it's exhausting to be awake and alive at the same time

GLOW STICK ❋ Ivanna Baranova

somewhere in me exists a so-called original urge to align with the astral body

HAPPY HOUR IN THE DECLINE OF CIVILIZATION ❋ Jakob Maier

Type ‘how’ & see how it autofills— how to be a happy person how to sleep better

[NEUROTIC LOVE BABY] ❋ Marie Conlan

Thumbs like torn paintings. Eyes like ponds stretched over the plains of the middle west

FIRE REGIME ❋ Matthew Girolami

Our shelter a vision: verdant glitch apparition of green green grass

NO PROBLEMATICS ❋ Viola Chen

If you can untangle the sections of who you are, then you can sell ’em on Etsy as organic ingredients, or more profitably, a cross stitch. Welcome to 2018, bitch Welcome to the rest of your miserable money life.

DOG WOMAN ❋ Melinda Freudenberger

curled up at my feet you are innocent to the thought of a different universe / your unhinged devotion blinding even me

NYMPH DRAINAGE ❋ L. Christie

A mass of primordial colours, I am a blossom In the watery cup of it Thank you, Thank you. Gouache, the tea- Coloured light Coming through the bay window

PARA VOCÊ ❋ Alexandra Khan-Anselmo

there is no place i can visit you no tombstone with your name our name no tree no park bench you who never had a home no coisas nossas

PLEASURE CRAFT ❋ Stevie Belchak

schedule a virtual appointment to view my sadness over many small windows

PYTHONESS ❋ Maija Ekey

totality &nd movement & n d the law of one b l i ss ful sur ren d er audible befr it is visible

THE CHOICE IS REAL ❋ Jayson Keery

That all of these children were made for what. For their upper halves. Their mouths. For what goes in them. In.

GOOGLE SEARCH HISTORY ❋ Tara McGowan-Ross

how to tell the difference between a heart attack and a panic attack

NO SPITTING / NO RADIO PLAYING ❋ Georgia Faust

I thought I was building a Ponzi scheme but midwinter scrolled backwards

YOU HAD TO OPPOSE MIRACLES ❋ Georgia Faust

I can’t tell down spruce miles from this avenue perspective motion away from motion approaching

GENERATED TWEETS ❋ Emilie Lafleur

I’m just as crazy without you. It is beautiful

EUPHEMISMS FOR ❋ Richard Kerwin

i ate the broken acorn i had a tantrum at the grocery will the candlewax forgive me will the filaments forgive me

PLEASE OPEN A DOOR FOR ME ❋ Jade Cruz Quinn

I thought the universe was blessing me. not sure if it is. we both know blessings can feel like metal in the chest

FUNAMBULISM ❋ Chanelle A Bergeron

please forgive me while i dip you in butter soften your fur to the degree of the moon

LITTLE MY ❋ Chanelle A Bergeron

i call you a cocoon, ready to unravel you call me, bloodroot dreaming of vascular shadows

FEBRUARY POEM ❋ Arielle Gavin

I like how you wrote an essay about pink, your least favourite colour Too much theory is a justification of taste Making laws out of whims

UNTITLED ❋ Bridget Boylan

here is where a poem turns here is where i become conscious

ANYONE’S NOTHING ❋ Bridget Boylan

in a dream the margins bleed a dog-eared page a rose petal turned up hue unclear a piece of ice frozen rain flies through the rear window hits me straight in the eye

HOT REMIX : ROBERT FROST ❋ Henry Kronk

I don’t believe I asked for this a lump of coal inside a gift to know one world, then see it shift

UNTITLED ❋ Xan Shian

I think back to the other night when I tried to articulate the difference between desire            and intention how one begets the other and we find ourselves naked in the morning

A BRIEF HISTORY OF FLIGHT ❋ Natalie Wee

It is known that nothing is wanted the way the unknown is wanted

CAL SAYS ❋ Tanis Franco

in this world there are essentially two types of people. there are creeps who write poems and then there are jerks who take mdma on your birthday and forget about you

GISÈLE VAMPIRE PRINCESS ❋ Tanis Franco

hands embroidering the stars tsunami hair waves down her ass like a castle

2 POEMS FROM JULIET ❋ Sarah Xerta

in bed eating Oreos like a normal person, my feet getting warm as my brain softens and slips away from itself like a moon

SPILL ❋ Sarah Xerta

I love you so much oceans are starting to remember why they birthed themselves And they are so proud And so thankful All that salt made from joy tears

KATNISS ❋ William Lessard

katniss killing everything / shoots for $300M global doesn’t it feel like ages ago peeta gave katniss the pearl?

BACKYARD SANCTUARY ❋ Paige Allen

I want to be a nice green viney plant or a very small cactus and have everyone I know take little bites from me until I am just a wispy root system reaching down toward colder dirt n rocks

STALIN AT 23 ❋ Seila Rizvic

you would hope that you could look at someone’s face and see if they were evil but mostly stalin at 23 just looks like an asshole

UNTITLED ❋ Alexis Hranchuk

Did I thank you too many times For the dust of pressed jacaranda settling in the sweet spot where the pages meet?

DIARY ENTRIES ❋ Madelyne Beckles

I’m wearing a sea world tshirt. I’m listening to Neil Young. I think I have a yeast infection

LES PRINTEMPS ❋ Mia-Francesca McAuslan

There is you and there is me. There is spring and there is you and there is me and we’ve been living inside the rib cage of this dead, frozen thing

ALL THESE DOGS IN THE WIND ❋ Mia-Francesca McAuslan

when I love I feel more mortal I feel the running out of time and it gives me extra strength

CHURNING BALLERINA ❋ Rebecca Dawe

There is a paradise demanding my attention, so why do I thrash in the churning gut of a noisy civilization?

LOVE IS A SELF-­SERVING HOLE, IS IT NOT ❋ Fawn Parker

she reaches to big moon face through the window milk swell, soft drywater glow she stamps the flowers and returns to the source

UNSENT DRUNK FACEBOOK MESSAGES ❋ Jakob Maier

Soft Animals. I feel you. in this taxi cab. darling, I drank a lot of stuff and am very very. I say hi to the pyrenees and you to the cascade range

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A RIVER AND A CREEK AND A BROOK AND A STREAM? ❋ Kenta Maniwa

My facial expression and my actual feelings are rarely on the same page

BURN YR </3 OUT ❋ Jack Bachmann

i last saw him in the bottom of the creek, dancing two steps ahead of the beat syncopated with the birds

BAD REPUTATION ❋ Alex Manley

No snares in the drums. So alone in so much of me. I’m not in love with you, or anyone. I’m in love with tension

MEMORY SPELL #18 ❋ Karissa LaRocque

The way I feel is a muscle Whose anatomy I don’t understand

BERGSON’S DURATION ❋ Annabel Banks

Conscious time is measurable by thought lengths, fantasy as feeler gauge

WHEN I WAS DRINKING (EVENING) ❋ Owen Clayborn

I cheered when the floodwaters rose up immensely covering bridges and washing the paths

WHEN I TELL YOU ❋ TayMarie Lorenzo

either way there is no room for me in your space

BIRTHDAYS ❋ Rebecca Ramirez

You sneak fires across the meadow

BABY ❋ Rebecca Ramirez

The wave is bitter baby-blue punk and shattering

SOLILOQUY ❋ Katrina Schaag

It was flat all around us, and he kept scratching at his nose, like it was cheese

CHICAGO, 2005 ❋ Katrina Schaag

there was something pure about the starving energy – a brutality seething in beauty, a rawness that cut lovingly

MOLLY ❋ Charlie Baylis

In the photo they are holding hands surprise, surprise

LIFE WAS NOT THOUGHT THROUGH BEFORE IT WAS PUT INTO MOTION ❋ Trevor Abes

There are certain notes in certain songs that shake my inner Etch-A-Sketch clean

EXPERIENCE OF DARKNESS ONLY IN BED ❋ Jonathan Aprea

He is guided by the jaw in his body whether it whistles, or is clenched, or is poised in anticipation of speaking

UNTITLED ❋ Tom Snarsky

Authenticity is another word for acting Like acting is somehow less than crucial To the success of the enterprise of being

A LICENSE TO SELL HAIR TONIC TO BALD EAGLES IN OMAHA, NEBRASKA ❋ Tom Snarsky

It’s a chemical—that much you expected— but the worried trees haven’t yet bought in- to the weekday morning television stories

UNDEFINED BUT STACKABLE ❋ Alizee Lenox

My heavy pink concrete sleep mask becomes porous & I dive into the interstice

TWO DOGS ❋ Rosamond Atkin

Dogs that want to fill The negative spaces Between each other With gardens That they force to grow

I ALSO ENJOY LONG BATHS ❋ Erin Taylor

there will be wars over water in this century

COMMITMENT ISSUES & OTHER THINGS MY THERAPIST COULD EXPLAIN BETTER THAN I CAN ❋ Erin Taylor

i want a dog i already have a dog & i wonder if my dog knows i want another dog

FOR CESARÉA TINAJERO ❋ Laura Bardsley

mistaken for cicadas mating, aerodynamic sheet metal mistaken for fjords, a fire escape

FLOWER HUNTERS ❋ Sari Lightman

These are the Flower Hunters a soft pilgrimage that doubles each decade donned in fabrics of neoprene and polyester light cotton and ventilated spandex wilting in the sun like the pious scorched petals of the desert basin

HOW TO DECORATE A DUMPSTER ❋ Laura McPhee-Browne

Spend time with the moon. Get to know it in all its shapes and shades of chalk, from early evening until early morning. The sun is not so important

SPIT ❋ Nathan Masserang

My cheek tenses and tongue does something wild against my teeth and I kiss the air backwards

BOSTON VS LOS ANGELES ❋ John Colasacco

their souls are a mouth inside a mouth

POEM AGAINST LIFE IN SUMMER ❋ August Smith

Me and my people, we are mostly snow and ocean and rainfall beings. We came here in ethereal, lacy orbs

VARIATIONS ON A PHYSICAL PAIN ❋ August Smith

There are people worse off in this world, yes I know, but in my bathroom I stand alone as the vortex of my pities

UNDER LESS ADVANCED FLOURESCENTS ❋ August Smith

Please stop crying. This is all part of the job of being a baby. Grow the fuck up

NOTES FROM WORK ❋ Jesse Prado

There’s still that point at the beginning of everyday where I just like, can’t

I ASK THE MAGIC EIGHT BALL IF GOD EXISTS ❋ Anna Mebel

I want to live as badly as any healthy stupid thing—

FREEWAYS LIKE THUNDERSTORMS HAVE UNEVEN EDGES ❋ Anna Mebel

Being alone in a new city is like being broken up with

AFTER MY HEART ❋ Chuck Young

my heart is a hot air balloon flying low through a small town and the people in the basket are partying and the balloon hits a tree and eventually power lines

THIS MIGHT NOT BE THE PLACE ❋ Bud Smith

The Cherry Blossom Tree Outside Your Window is Waiting For The Perfect Window

CHORDS ❋ Zachary Cosby

Making out like microphones listening

I’M SORRY I SLEPT WITH YOUR BOYFRIEND ON MY QUEST FOR SEXUAL AWAKENING ❋ Alyssa Rorke

I drove through a town that was full of fields

BLINK 182 WAS RIGHT ❋ Alyssa Rorke

a deep breath is accompanied by a shift in sleeping position and on my birthday I do not fit into my shirt

BORDERLINE DEFINITIONS ❋ JC Bouchard

Everything in the world can fit inside a thumbnail

I HAVE A FIST ❋ JC Bouchard

The sun reflects everything Even itself

FOR OPTIMISM IN ART ❋ Dominic Gualco

we have engaged in the most vulnerable connection of atoms, an undetectable pathway between neurons

IT WAS GOOD ❋ Dominic Gualco

Recently I’ve learned that some things I heard as a child, which formed much of my perspective, were lies

A BEAUTIFUL DREAM OF TOTAL SILENCE ❋ Tom Snarsky

I’m looking for a Word Like “speculation” But for listening

MITRE IN THREE SCENES ❋ Tom Snarsky

The vestal virgins yawn in agate. My life decisions have felt theoretical For a long time, martyred as they are By the dizzy moon

FLOWER CHILD ❋ Jackie Mlotek

the softness of fresh petals, smooth stems, shocking thorns, and the sensuality of gently pressing your fingers into soil. slow. deep

LAY DOWN ❋ Gabrielle Marceau

the grass was something, the dirt and cement too, but the feeling wasn’t much

ORCHID FOOD ❋ Gabrielle Marceau

A flower is an animal in reverse – brain on the bottom, sex organ on top

POEM 9 ❋ Jeffrey Mackie

It is all changed you see There is no longer any quality In today’s world

MONTREAL: FOR THOSE WHO STAY ❋ Jeffrey Mackie

More friends than enemies More hope than fear More parks than freeways

LISTING MY DISAPPOINTMENTS ❋ Rosamund Mather

Things are basically nice: I’m living in my favourite city in the world. But I might be happier somewhere else

THINGS I THOUGHT STONED ❋ Jessica D’Angelo

Dance around to music that sounds like it’s coming from waving trees. Turn off all screens. They only suck your soul

ON HERDING CATS ❋ Rin Johnson

First, Let me put my face in the palm of your hand. It’ll fit. Thank you

MOM LOOK ❋ Rin Johnson

We had our fire. We burned everything. We listened for the ocean. We covered ourselves in sand

UNTITLED ❋ Vincent Pagé

When you think about it there really aren’t that many mediums just a lot of space

SEE THROUGH ❋ Nathan Wade Carter

Poor orb. Your feeding hand is bitten. Anything near the mouth gets bitten

MEANWHILE, THE SKY CLOUDED ❋ Chris Barton

products were bought and sold on Amazon

PLEASE ❋ Carmen Brady

I thank the universe for the sweet promise of change thanks

CORSET LIFE ❋ Obe Alkema

I’m not a regular Millennial, I’m a cool Millennial. Instead of imagining my emotions in metaphors I declare that I have emotions

LIGHT LIGHT ALWAYS LIGHT ❋ Noah Burton

death by Google death by chocolate Bye-Bye’s death by grass death

DESIRE IS GREAT TROUBLE ❋ Kristina Mahler

I looked good at the foot of your effigy but I look better on my couch alone

ALONE AT YOUR PARENTS HOUSE AT THE END OF FEBRUARY ❋ Kristina Mahler

It is important for me to feel beautiful in times of crisis But I think you prefer when I am ugly

WHY DOES ANYONE RESIST? ❋ Kristina Mahler

Sitting in the backyard the cicadas wail like sirens You tell me I am too picky about fruit I laugh and you get mad because I won't explain the joke

HUNGRY POEM ❋ Jamie Mortara

i’m crying right now at the market because it’s too expensive to be this broke i could swallow a whole sky right now

THE FLOATING DOOR AT INTERSTATE LANES ❋ Jamie Mortara

you ever get a splinter and watch your skin gradually grow it out of you?

WHAT WE TALK ABOUT WHEN WE DON’T TALK ANYMORE ❋ Jamie Mortara

you ever worry we are both throwing stones at all the different people inside of us

LISTEN YOU CAN’T DISMEMBER EVERYTHING ❋ Sarah Vandervennet

everybody remembers skies but nobody can claim to know them

NATURALEZA MUERTA ❋ Sarah Vandervennet

I tell my portrait: you’re not casting a shadow, you’re in the way

AT MY MOST DEPRAVED I AM A BANSHEE ❋ Sarah Vandervennet

corals are mostly bones living in water while we are mostly water living in bones

HERE, THE SKY IS DIFFERENT ❋ Candace Holmes

the sky here is different. he said he memorized the pattern in my iris in case he ever has to identify me using only my eyeballs

UNTITLED ❋ Candace Holmes

i’m hiding some part of every nonexistent timeline in my liver an aquarium with every you

KILL YR IDOLS ❋ Paul Clark

capitalism has only been around for 2 centuries & has only endured 4 crises capitalism is an endless failure for the individuals that are subject to it

STOP SWEATING ❋ Spoiler

you realize you’re Sweating again and it’s Late and you Haven’t Eaten

FACTORY ❋ Rhiannon Collett

she saw you in the courtyard my measuring stick slick with love like fake blood

REPLY GRACIOUSLY TO THE THING ❋ Rhiannon Collett

i split you, stories i papier i mâcher, marcher my tongue up & over your lips

SEPTEMBER 10 2016 ❋ Rhiannon Collett

i opened, i opened they stepped upon me holy they went upstairs

A FEW HUNDRED KILOMETERS ❋ Graeme Bezanson

What if there were a giant thumb pressing down on everything

EATING ICE CREAM CAKE UNTIL SOMETHING DIFFERENT STARTS TO HURT ❋ Joseph Parker Okay

my aunt says the american flag is beautiful followed by something transphobic i’m glad i never have to talk to her again

SPOKANE VALLEY ❋ Angie Sijun Lou

Lately you’ve been thinking about hiccups on the freeway, the difference between meditation and oblivion

HOLE BOUQUET ❋ Anna Mirzayan

Branching transversal flowers glance at each other through tinted screens Where a suprasensual florescence belies a moist pleasing reality

MERCURITA ❋ Margaryta Golovchenko

amassing gilded frames & glass terrariums to help me settle in

IPOS & FRANTIC // HOES ❋ Emily Present

I enter into the purple mood, I can already tell everybody in here is talking shit

THIS WAS THEN, THAT IS NOW ❋ Theo Thimo

I’m thinking about some difficult things, smoking weed as the nude couple on the third floor of the neighboring building installs an air conditioner

ON THE MORNING LEONARD COHEN DIED ❋ Brad Casey

a field full of horses and all their hairs are mirrors and all the mirrors you

THEORETICAL ❋ Parker Baldin

and the reality of it is that it’s true and nothing seems in your power to change

A SMALL LIST OF THINGS I WOULD USUALLY HIDE ❋ Andrea Mena

seventy-three percent of the time we are not what we project ourselves to be seventy-three percent is the amount of time i spend trying to retain consciousness seventy-three percent of men talk down to me when talking politics

YOU MADE MY CHEST FEEL LIKE AN EMPTY CAR PARK ❋ Andrea Mena

we wait for our hands to merge with the sky in the middle of a rainstorm for our eyes to see the way we could see before we knew things about each other

ANTIMONY (AGAINST LONELINESS) ❋ Charles Gonsalves

And that all you have are the hopes that someone wants to see you Take your clothes off

ANTEPORTRAIT ❋ Charles Gonsalves

Behind the hands there is an entire spectrum hidden. Behind the hands there is always trembling information and when I am at my most affected I am at my most

RETURNING TO MYSELF ❋ Maya Kendra

Struggling to cater this vehicle of my body to an ever changing audience. Do they like my lips this week or do they hate them? I can’t remember

NO EXIT ❋ EE Jarvie

picture this: i’m on hold with customer service standing on the never-ending escalator in the super mall of my mind

DATA POINT: LOVE PAINTING ❋ Wassim Hage

not the point of lunar berserk, but to vie my love so let me show you, step closer in the rain

THE SAME ❋ Brielle Brilliant

harmony drew a fox brain on the television and it looked like the thing in my notebook. he smoked a lot and that was bad but he tap danced and that was good

MOVIE STRUCTURE ❋ Brielle Brilliant

II. you know with our dna II. do you notice the animal end of harmony.

A PEACH ❋ Alex McGill

I bruise easily a peach my legs fuzzy and glimmering

TENDER ❋ Alex McGill

I wipe sticky sweet juice off my hands dyed pink like sunset kissed sky

IN TOUCH ❋ Alex McGill

I am a tiny speck I wish I could submerge for all time cease to exist except as a particle

I’M FEELING LESS ROMANTIC LATELY ❋ Alex McGill

I want to touch you the way I do fruit in the grocery store

IT’S BEEN A WHILE; IT’S BEEN FOREVER ❋ Leona Nikolić

I am okay I remember because I have the sky and I am lighter than most clouds I am far away from earth now

(NO SUBJECT) ❋ Edmonton Kanada

Hi THERE , i/M NOT A CUSTOMER , i WANT TO SEND A MESSAGE TO CANADiAN PUBLiSHERS

I LAY VERY WELL WITH FLEAS ❋ Annie Grizzle

All the dynamics of the world sit high on the sonic register so that they could, depending, be taken as spoiled. Perfect infinity entirely looped

NATURE BOY ❋ Sari Lightman

Nature Boy peeling lemons in the canyon

29 PALMS ❋ Sari Lightman

A full moon over San Bernadino 29 Palms and I the last drunkard cumming into your mouth

MURMUROUS LILT IN WHITE ❋ Julie Mannell

The forms disappear and I feel hungry for the obvious materiality of you. You are the whisper that bore skin and teeth

THE WHITE VOTE ❋ Julie Mannell

Drink Mother Fucker, drink drink drink. Time is a noun when you’re younger; you are always young when guilty

WHAT IT MEANS TO LOVE RED BEANS ❋ Zoe Blair-Schlagenhauf

i keep this lighter in my car because sometimes it works, and that’s the same reason why i keep your number in my phone, and your head on my pillow

BURN DOWN THE INTERNET AND PLANT FLOWERS WHERE IT USED TO BE ❋ June Gehringer

he pleads: “hold you, hold you, hold you,” until you do

I LOVE YOU IT LOOKS LIKE RAIN ❋ June Gehringer

i want to tell you i love you on top of a mountain while eating a mcflurry

HELLO HERE IS A POEM ❋ June Gehringer

hello here is a poem i hope you love it more than me

ALL MY SENSES WIDE OPEN ❋ Charlotte von Fritschen

I LEFT THE LAPTOP TO GO LOOK AT THE SKY I WATCHED A WHOLE SUNSET

BREAK THE STRIDE ❋ Zen Shwery

Light in your mind heavy on your feet Unlearning is intensely challenging A past questioned a present uncertain

SWEET REUNION ❋ Zen Shwery

A street lamp            a skinny tree            an odd face            a crystal contraption

HERE COMES SOME BEAUTY ❋ Neil Surkan

The child flicks a penny through some foam and wishes no one he knows will ever die

NEVER CHANGES TO STOP ❋ Neil Surkan

The morning started very orange. The mountains clenched black and singular and hard against the sky

A LIST OF THINGS MEN HAVE ASKED ME TO DO TO SECURE THEIR AFFECTIONS ❋ Ruby Brunton

get a tattoo don’t get a tattoo

SPILLING ❋ Ruby Brunton

there’s something about living in this country that drives you to a frenzy only curable by yelling at the opposition

FULL MOON ❋ Aley Waterman

ur exes are party ghosts

FOR THE PROCEDURE THAT YOU NEED IN THE U.S.A. ❋ Laura Buccieri

you have to get the referral you have to get the referral in person you have to get the referral in person from a doctor you have to get the referral in person from a doctor that has never met you

MOVIES WITH MEN AS MAIN CHARACTERS DEPRESS ME ❋ Catch Business

checking to see if i’m still here i set my alarm life isn’t as long as death but it just felt as real to me

[I REMAIN AN OBJECT] ❋ Nate Pritts

I remain an object In a technological world

IN THE QUEER UTOPIA ❋ Aeon Ginsberg

Is it not utopia when we all have a home to get to, and get to do what makes us fullest in the process

I WILL NOT DIE ACCORDING TO MY TIME SHEET ❋ Aeon Ginsberg

In the weeks after I become jobless I forget to schedule when to stave off my depression

AGAINST RADICAL SOFTNESS ❋ Aeon Ginsberg

Okay hear me out, my friends are soft homes I find my head resting into

PRESENT SIGNS ❋ Daniel Sebastian Baker

Your arrival declared itself. But I wasn’t In the room any Longer

HERE NOR THERE ❋ Daniel Sebastian Baker

This is a discourse on several topics neither Here nor there, but very closely related, and Certainly of deep significance

AFTER ❋ Goldie Negelev

I avoid the internet each screen a ghost in my room to find the flower opening, slowly I mourn & manage to go nowhere

ALLUVIUM ❋ Goldie Negelev

my face gets ravaged by the beautiful sea but I like myself

NOT SO FLEXI ❋ Nicolas Tirakis

and you can always here more than 1 person breathing thru their mouth

S’UP, VOID? ❋ Nicolas Tirakis

i’m in an airplane i’m travelling through time and clouds and the rivotril is kicking in

UP CLOSE EVERY WHITE MAN IN SOUTH JERSEY LOOKS LIKE RICHARD SPENCER ❋ Linette Reeman

i won’t let live to piss on my grave / i mean i sing into my lover’s back and it might not save the future

AS DONALD TRUMP IS BEING INAUGURATED ❋ Linette Reeman

a girl and i stagger out of a tear-cloud and shake into each other’s mouths. there is no one i love out of necessity

SUNSET ❋ June Moon

men fear ridicule the way women fear violence

THE COMING OF THE END ❋ June Moon

There’s an ephemeral silence found in loneliness

PLEASE STOP THE IMMEDIACY ❋ Klara Feenstra

a colour wheel with every shade of red the same shade of red, every bitmapped spec of mars

HOW TO BE HERE ❋ Klara Feenstra

I know the waveform of an um coming between the bile and tongue and tooth and security

WATER DROPS ❋ Dayane Ramirez

Sometimes i feel like thoughts or even emotions are like drops of water

WHEN YOU WERE JUNG ❋ Mallory Smart

you began like two people on a rock you stood, drinking coffee on a rock your life in shambles on a rock

WHITE SOCKS ❋ Ottavia Silvestri

If I am tender watery beauty

STICKY SAP ❋ Ottavia Silvestri

in the club calmly limp on the sofa, light as dust

PEARLY ❋ Ottavia Silvestri

among the shower’s vapours

SUNNIES ❋ Ottavia Silvestri

I am steeping into the yolky heat

SILVER BELLS ❋ Ottavia Silvestri

one coin in the gum machine, candy coated

LITTORAL ❋ Simon Kim

Another beach. The clouds diffuse a shining. The sun

ASPERITAS ❋ Simon Kim

The sky reminds me of a geological word. The sky is like schist & I am too but also not really

BELIZE ❋ Simon Kim

I read how contingent statements regarding the future right now are neither true or false

EARTH GROW NEW MOON ❋ Param Anand Singh

Earth grow new moon—no, I mean—EARTH GROW NEW SUN!

HAPPY NATIONAL PET DAY ❋ Mary Boo Anderson

I pet the soft parts of my body The nape of my neck The inside of my wrists

ONCE YOU HAVE PEED YOUR PANTS IN FRONT OF MOST OF YOUR FRIENDS ❋ Mary Boo Anderson

I am a small dog peeing on the streets of Manhattan, reflexively kicking my legs on the concrete to cover my mess with dirt that isn’t there

CAT SITTING ON FIFTH AVE & 10TH STREET ❋ Mary Boo Anderson

I try to imagine being a teen who owns anti-aging cream & facial bleach I try to figure out the difference between being rich & being immortal & I give up

TOMMIE ❋ Allyson Young

The Wonder-wheel gives us a crick in our necks, crooked like rock candy on a stick. Like a syringe in the sand

VALVOLINE ❋ Allyson Young

I drive to the cheeseburger place and I buy a cheeseburger from a woman with pink hair

NELL LEAVES SOMETHING IN JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI ❋ Allyson Young

You, naked, in the morning, and the problem of work

ODE TO A BURRITO ❋ Jeanette Quick

inner moistness, the intermarriage of warm cheese and pico de gallo

LIBRA RISING ❋ Lee Suksi

Unreal grace in the light of explosive phenomena and turnover, oh you are so often tender

SUN IN AQUARIUS ❋ Lee Suksi

I try to dream of the world malingering among the stars

WE MADE CHOPSTICK WALRUSES ❋ Elena Robidoux

And something in the air of fairies. Maybe it was the pollen, which churned the wind like a snow globe, debris the colour of curry

POEM READ ON THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JIMMY FALLON ❋ Mike Bushnell

the clouds move twenty thousand feet above the mountain and I am in my little apartment thinking about cleaning

THE CONVERSATION WE NEVER HAD ❋ Maha Zimmo

placing every seed gently into rose-water & melted sugar

THE COLONIZED ❋ Maha Zimmo

i see brown brothers break open their rib-cages to drink the urine of pale women

HOME ❋ C.T. McGaha

sometimes i wonder who sews the flowers on these motel bed spreads

[RECEIPT PAPER POEMS] ❋ Sophia Reuss

to discern petals from the leaves, a seam traces my memory’s curve–

I AM THE OCEAN TONIGHT AND YOU ARE A GREAT DISTANCE ❋ Johnny Kiosk

i am starting to feel something resembling a fierce desire to move away from myself at lightspeed toward a cold silent massive void

BLACK SWAN ❋ Stephanie Valente

my stars ain’t running some kind of bullshit charity so, if you’re ready to eat the crystals, let’s do it. no foolin’

MORNING RITE ❋ Nooks Krannie

you’re a part of 1st world society now you’re wasting warmth on skin where a tongue is a stand-in for every bad situation

’90’S SHORT ❋ Nooks Krannie

Not since we gathered our kneecaps and shipped them with knives to a color that exists on every wheel in every America

SUPER NORMAL VISION ❋ Mallory Burnside-Holmes

she’s under attack on the sidewalk she’s under attack in the mall she’s under attack in her bedroom she’s under attack on Instagram

POEM BEGINNING WITH FALSEHOOD ❋ Shazia Hafiz Ramji

I imagine you jerking off to parts from Society of the Spectacle your face lethargic like after smoking a bowl on a Wednesday

MALEFICARUM ❋ John Leo

the manual says i got to love myself, but when i jerk off the spell breaks and i don’t love myself no more. back to the garden

YOU ARE IN A PLACE WITH SOMETHING IN YOUR HANDS AND YOU’RE READING ❋ Jack Bachmann

            i once wrote out a list        of places it would be nice to kiss u                but i don’t think we will ever be anywhere listed

: / ❋ Shy Watson

i am sitting at the bus stop quietly listening to vince staples instagramming the festive trashcan in front of me

NO SHE DIDN’T ❋ Shy Watson

i want to fuck in the grand canyon before i die

AUGUST ❋ Shy Watson

trying hard not to like Tame Impala in my underwear I am two hits shy of becoming a bug

GRAY PIGEON ❋ Gregory Zorko

together early morning eating cereal mix

LINT ❋ Gregory Zorko

if you don’t want to that’s fine but can you come back from Connecticut on Tuesday instead of Thursday?

BANANA BOX ❋ Gregory Zorko

if we are going to the club tonight i only want to dance to “Lean Back”

UNTITLED ❋ Jen Steinbeck

Booming and hush squeak speak Nothing quite on top I’m just kidding I like trip hop

THE MAD MONEY OF LOVE ❋ Adam Tedesco

Love is delivering an amazing return on love Lovers are like sitting ducks Going into loving season

DREAM DATE ❋ Elizabeth Schmuhl

And I am your dream date because I am also I mirror I am the ideal specimen to reflect your ideal version of your back towards yourself

FROM EARTH WITH LOVE, ALSO SOME OTHER EMOTIONS ❋ Sarah Edwards

Hey spaceman! Forget gravity & make love to the 500 ton sky brain you can float & I will close my eyes so you can make love to bush babies crunching on your breath

UNTITLED ❋ Dalton Kamish

when a fox cries into a trash bin and the thames is only as dirty as you like and it might be the rain but i’m not sure

ALSO UNTITLED ❋ Dalton Kamish

i’m sorry that weeks seem like seconds and minutes seem like days and i’m sorry that you can’t wake up without hating yourself because you can’t wake up

PERFECT DAY FOR RAMEN ❋ Emma Orlow

To be clear: I’m writing this not because I am in love with you but because you had a car and I love that in a man

HE MAKES A HEART IN THE LATTE FOR EVERYONE ❋ Emma Orlow

Latte art is propaganda I’ve been deceived before and I’m telling you so you won’t feel special again

THE POET APPROACHES LIGHT SPEED ❋ Luis Neer

i sing to a therapist about you when he says your name it sounds naked and dead on a beach like an unknown creature

LEARN TO LOVE YOUR LONELINESS ❋ Luis Neer

I know I know not everyone feels this way Not everyone feels like this

NEW WALTZ FOR THE OLD WORLD ❋ Luis Neer

When I speak to you through the phone our words float secondhand— needles into the dark

UNFATHOMABLY SMALL DISTANCE ❋ Sarah Jean Alexander

Half the time I have difficulty seeing you from any amount of distance. I have to close my eyes. How do you do that

JUN ❋ Sarah Jean Alexander

Often in the middle of a prayer I realize this is just another excuse to avoid responsibility

MAY ❋ Sarah Jean Alexander

I understand being overworked beyond repair and under­utilized until you start to truly believe that you were put on this earth just to do nothing until it is over

APR ❋ Sarah Jean Alexander

As an adult my insecurities mostly revolve around whether or not the lock on the bathroom door in the bar actually works

MAR ❋ Sarah Jean Alexander

Sometimes you tell yourself stop thinking about that dick and then it’s all you can think about

AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS BODY ❋ Emily Wood

Last summer I had a wax mold of my hand made

WARM GIRL ❋ Emily Wood

I wish I could love you like you were the end of the world

AND JUST LIKE THAT THERE’S A PLACE ❋ Emily Wood

And you are among the recycling And you become civic despondency, having stood all day in the sun

MY LEATHER HARNESS ❋ Maya Martinez

— and the sun? — everything is mine because I say so

ANDY WARHOL’S MOTHER ❋ Stephanie Barber

its harmonies to the endless maternal lighting grid beneath which the grass did glow

TIME ❋ Stephanie Barber

none of andy’s friends could believe the amount of time he spent. like money, he was rich

ANDY ASK AGAIN, ASK AGAIN AND PUSH ❋ Stephanie Barber

the doctors, like the moonlit poets, are calm. bemused behind glass

ANDY BEUYS ❋ Stephanie Barber

do you button up? do you stop soon? do you have the winter ask itself over and over

CHRYSALIS ❋ Jennifer MacBain-Stephens

Sea life tells me fuck off I don’t belong here

WHAT CONTINUES TO STICK ❋ Lora Mathis

Small banishment. This is the truth I keep getting stuck on

KEEP YOUR LOVE LETTERS ❋ Aja Moore

My best friend with whom I ate the weed before I left the city sends me a meme

VISION ❋ Gregory Zorko

i am so small and not lonely the world is like a pita for me

ON THE DREAM SIDE ❋ Sean Nicholas Savage

this was a little too much brotherhood for the other cop his apparent superior who then reprimanded him in front of us

WORDS ❋ Sean Nicholas Savage

this is where we get to this is where i find you what good is my language here what good are our words?

RAIN OVER KARL MARX ❋ Sean Nicholas Savage

i’ve heard the apocalypse been forecast before i always knew it was a place not a time

CONCEPT OF LIGHT SPEED ❋ Sean Nicholas Savage

close the third eye silence your sixth sense drop your weapons

KALĀM KOSMOLOGICA ❋ Rose Knapp

Shadows of stars Tearing themselves Flittering over this Wasteland Cantos

LOTUS FERVOR ❋ Rose Knapp

Roses burn Silver glints Slices smoke Into projections Some call history

STAYING PUT ❋ Emma Cohen

its easier to see in the swelter with the glint of near bedtime rose shadows

WEEK OF WAKING THOUGHTS POEM ❋ Rachelle Toarmino

no not this again inside I am colors flying

I WANTED TO ASK YOU ❋ Rachelle Toarmino

I wanted to ask you if you knew how vertically time shifts

REGARDING KISSING ❋ Jenna-Katheryn Heinemann

I want to hear all the fluids moving in our bodies at this moment

APORIA ❋ Jenna-Katheryn Heinemann

Is your memory fastened within you with a soft substance?

IRRESOLVABLE ❋ Jenna-Katheryn Heinemann

I accumulate hobbies and hours of sleep so I can avoid the future I forgive you for forgetting about me

ALONE ❋ Jenna-Katheryn Heinemann

I woke up to an entirely new city and rendered each impression I had

MY EVEREST ❋ Claire Drummond

my whole world is a red pimple

A MAN ON THE TRAIN ❋ Cortney Cassidy

a man on the train asked me what book i was reading then if i was a feminist

I LOST TO CAPITALISM A LONG TIME AGO ❋ Cortney Cassidy

i suggested cheeseburgers and donuts for lunch but everyone said no

SPARE THE INTERNET, SPOIL THE INTERNET ❋ RE Katz

days come like error in the natural gas equation

A RARE WHITE ALLIGATOR DYING IN A LOUISIANA AQUARIUM ❋ RE Katz

I sleep mouth-down in you Interrupting

A THOUSAND POSSIBILITIES ❋ Christian Brun Del Re

my eyes drank you your shadow half-naked half-animal & whispers

LIVING THE LOVE (SIMPLE TOUCH) ❋ Christian Brun Del Re

you gave us a dream to chew you the stranger i kissed in the hammock salad-the red carpets – premiering the dawn of new

HANDFUL ❋ T. Liem

It was hot that day. I was sitting in front of a fan at my kitchen table feeling hateful, everything melting except hate

EVERYTHING IS GOING GREAT AND I AM HAPPY RIGHT NOW (FOR LIZ) ❋ T. Liem

I am happy right now and everything is going great

THE FALL ❋ Shweiry Zein

Is it wine that makes me feel light? Is it the music?

BONES ❋ Sarah Feldbloom

Yesterday my body slapped against the seat in a metal boat

TICKLE WARS ❋ Sarah Feldbloom

I used to refuse you pointed my straight face at yours

THE GARDEN INSIDE ME ❋ Anoosha Lalani

I swallowed a seed from an orange tree

LISBON IMAGINED ❋ Ivanna Baranova

during our sad little breakfast by the window we discuss the patterns in population density of the last cities on earth we’ve never been to but know how to pronounce

A WAY SOMEHOW ❋ Noah Cicero

I don’t know, at times, if you are really people, I know you are people, I mean

VALLEY OF FIRE ❋ Noah Cicero

Sometimes I lie down in the desert

HAN SHAN GETS A JOB ON COLD MOUNTAIN ❋ Noah Cicero

“Can’t you get a job using your degree”

BLUE-TIFUL ❋ Daphné B.

one day someone will hold you so tight you will feel whole again two penguins kiss on my Facebook thread loneliness has no age it has every hour

TELL THEM I DON’T HAVE BLOOD ANYMORE, JUST METAL ❋ Abbie Heath

(metal metal metal coursing between my fingers where i once touched you)

HOW TO MAKE A SAUNA ❋ Jayinee Basu

Construct a box from the slats no bigger than an ego. Fit a graphite crucible. Obtain a piece of gold perfect in its softness

SEX SONGS ❋ Megan Lent

the dollar store scarf, orange in its own way, forces my hands into devotion

LOOK SEE ❋ David Walker

but what about the quiet things, the little dull things hidden between the big shiny things, are these also formative, do these also count

GETTING IN THE WAY OF THE WAY ❋ Laura Broadbent

Darkness within darkness. The gateway to all understanding

RAIN ❋ Diandre Prendimano

The grey weighing down, the sky pressing down against the horizon

FINGERS ❋ Diandre Prendimano

To believe in my own fingers again touching each thing I love

HEADS ❋ Diandre Prendimano

Heads says we go for it get in the cab

ANOTHER DAY ❋ Diandre Prendimano

I am on every possible axis a terrible person

SKY ❋ Diandre Prendimano

I nowadays completely recognize aspects of myself in certain actions of the sky

A NERVOUS LAUGH [EXCERPT] ❋ Matthew Sherling

a tree behind a TV in a spacious den, a tree wrapped in toilet paper, two trees wrapped around each other, two trees whose limbs scrape asphalt

THE FUTURE ❋ Jessica Schouela

In the future, some foods would give you an electric shock and this electrocution was thought to be good for the hearts

BEFORE THE GROTTO ❋ Jessica Schouela

I am in the mood for blue-green, for cerebral coasts; I wish to return to my grotto to spend the night in my own company

CÔTES-DES-NEIGES ❋ Jason Freure

When the raiding squads come, the Snowdon delis will be deserted

LA CARRETA ❋ Jason Freure

We come here when pizza night becomes every night. We come here to pretend that nights off are special

WE WILL NEVER BE AS LOVED AS BY THE FLIES ❋ Meghan Greeley

I am very loved, very coveted by that dark and starving cloud buzzing in wait by the window

MY PROVERBS ❋ Nat Emerling

I could fill a palace with the chances I never took. Love is not wise, and I am not loved

UNTITLED ❋ Nat Emerling

I didn’t trust you, so I let your lips touch mine

THERE IS A GHOST IN MY HEART ❋ Richard Kerwin

we were flesh once plunged tongues into navels

DEAR LEADER ❋ Damian Rogers

The age of gilded gurus continues on under corporate sponsorship, and still the comfortable suffer in their well-cut pantsuits

SURFACES ❋ Gavin Kokichi Lytton

I keep making the same mistake of confusing good sex with love

FOR MOUNA IN NEW MEXICO ❋ Brad Casey

the land where we stand is the skin of a peach and the galaxy is a pancake

REEL IN, RELUCTANT ❋ Tara McGowan-Ross

I wanted to become more mysterious (less exposed) so I became a ghost

WALKING AWAY SLOWLY, 1.5 MILES PER HOUR ❋ Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch

I tell you that I am writing to you as an aesthetic experiment in perception.

BERLIN HAS LEFT ME DEEP (BRUISES) ❋ Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch

Just when I think I can tell you I feel nauseous on the bus ride to Prague, I am still hesitant and you’re deep sleeping.

COAX COATLICUE ❋ Abra Gist

Until that day, I thought I was just another chicana – or a gringa to mi familia

THE WAY, FROM OVER THERE ❋ Abra Gist

Nican mopohua Aqui se narra Here it is told

DOOM ❋ Nicholas Bon

Everything is written in the same little letters, made from the same reconfigured parts found in the same primordial dream bucket

LAST YEAR ❋ Ananya Pandya

Last year i think i was trying to run away but i was being very obvious about it

UNTITLED ❋ Jade Quinn

a girl hand-wrote, “you like the arches of my feet,” in a pocket poet howl covered in water color

UNTITLED ❋ Jade Quinn

prophecy exists for the opportunity to change fate

ODE TO ANNE ❋ Sophia Tempest Parsons

I wear your wedding ring on a necklace. I keep strands of your hair in tea bags

TUESDAY ENNUI ❋ Sophia Tempest Parsons

when someone tells you yes it always means sorry

GOOD FRIDAY ❋ Sophia Tempest Parsons

feeling at home can also mean dying

ATX ❋ Sophia Tempest Parsons

It’s like tuesday morning or a dream of an old lover

LIME TREE ❋ Sophia Tempest Parsons

the moon has flesh and i bet it feels like yours

RITUAL ❋ Sophia Tempest Parsons

everything you do is a ritual you hold death on the back of your eyelids

PROBLEMATIC ❋ Lydia Hounat

a frustration, I whip my hummus

I WILL NEVER BE SATISFIED ❋ Lydia Hounat

i have hugged the moon to tears. i have eaten whole pizzas, worn white cotton socks

ON DEVOTION TO CHANGE ❋ Jeremy Boyd

it is hardly morning but the air is full of life

UNTITLED ❋ Mary Moore Dalton

asleep and dreaming of being deliriously happy in chicago while in an ice covered elevator plummeting to the ground

WORM PICNIC ❋ Mary Moore Dalton

hey boy, did you know there is a big star in the sky and if you go outside she will try to burn your skin?

HOW MANY NOSEBLEEDS TIL IT BECOMES A PROBLEM ❋ a.m. kozak

i need to get outta the house, dana txts me

TYPICAL WEEKDAY EVENING ❋ a.m. kozak

she tries to talk to me in memes but i dno what that means

DON’T BREAKUP IN A COFFEE SHOP ❋ a.m. kozak

katie brings a pot of tea & lingers for a moment

HOW TO COME OUT AND SHINE ❋ Jeanette Beebe

We want the body to be how we open the door

MATERIAL PEARL ❋ Jeanette Beebe

On the bed of her mouth sat a pearl

WHO LOVES A TENT ❋ Julia Wohlstetter

All movie’s hot intent, love’s not cold poetry

FULL ❋ Julia Wohlstetter

I stamped myself with Femininity and bought a new comforter

GUPPY ❋ Suzanna Derewicz

waving off advances for 6 months until it is june & I am high & craving your hand

#BIEBERROAST ❋ Suzanna Derewicz

Covered in dollar store brand VapoRub, stinging my eyes

OPEN//CLOSE ❋ katherine anne

here is half of me sit with her for a moment see if she is someone you could love

HOW DO YOU RESPOND TO CONFLICT ❋ Adèle Barclay

By the river I make a fist And water evaporates into stars

EVERYTHING I LOVE I LOVE IN A GAY WAY ❋ Quinn Flom

i wanna do gay stuff with u like put our hands together and talk about our rising signs

YOU’RE A GENIUS ALL THE TIME ❋ Colin Rothfels

you’re both my umbrella and the rain you’re braver than you think you are

RED DIGITAL ALARM CLOCK ❋ Jay Winston Ritchie

“Sky” is a word that describes whatever is consistent above a person from one horizon to the next

THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME ❋ Ohara Hale

I’m learning how to become: normal

THE REAL WORLD ❋ Jason Harvey

Welcome to the Real World House it is filled w/ single young ppl looking to hook up also find themselves

THE PRAGMATISM OF A GIRL ❋ Klara du Plessis

Mother on the phone: Know my panic for t-shirts, she says. This is a bad time, I say.

THE DARK ❋ Ohara Hale

I forgot how the light moves across the room

THE CONVERSATION I NEVER HAD WITH A SHRUB ❋ Jessica Schouela

I stood there staring at it putting on my most threatening face and I was so serious I felt like cutting it all up

SUPERBOWL ❋ Jason Harvey

instead everybody in 60 000 capacity stadium becomes nude

RODNEY GRAHAM ❋ Alex M. F. Quicho

Some other beginning in which the sound appears cascading, where I face you and say something but it’s an open symbol ringing

RETURNING A SMOKE MACHINE ❋ Jason Harvey

I wonder about his life when I am not there I wonder what I would be like to be a rock or a tree

ODE TO GERTRUDE ❋ Ines Radjenovic

Who am I, no who are you Better yet leave me alone Knowing I makes me free from knowing you And on like that we’ll go

LITTLE FLOWERS THAT POP AND OPEN WHEN YOU TOUCH THEM ❋ Alex Manley

Sheila Heti said it was blow jobs, but the highest, purest artform of the 21st century is definitely the shareable headline

MERCURY’S NET ❋ Charlie Twitch

what’s your problem? you never know just when to stop it…

LOVE SHACK ❋ Marie Darsigny

The B52s were playing because it was the only CD we had. Love shack baby love shack, and you twisted my hair

LIKE AA BUT FOR PEOPLE WHO CAN’T GET OVER IMAGINARY LOVERS ❋ Marie Darsigny

I want to set up a kind of group therapy where people can come drink tap water and listen to Fleetwood Mac while grieving for their imaginary lovers

I’M SEEING SOMEONE ❋ Rollie Pemberton

You can see them on weekdays But not on Sunday or Wednesday Those are relationship days

I BELONG IN MY BODY ❋ Ashley Obscura

I long for someone to take an interest in my existence, just eye contact on St. Viateur or something said, off script a secret path with nowhere to go, the appeal of stasis

I / II ❋ Aiki Coxhead

I do not like the feeling of being in love, but I do it all the time

GREAT BIG CANVASS ❋ Domenica Martinello

Give the poet an ice cream cone. Put her in a futuristic store with glass floors & something cold to lick

GLORIA SWANSON’S EX-HUSBAND WAS A SOLDIER ❋ Julian Flavin

Perfecting the art of leaving your house 5 hours late, wordless as a steamboat in the drag of the afternoon

FIVE DAYS IN REDNOTEBOOK ❋ Luis Silva

my insanity has adjusted to the light

COBBLESTONE AND TANGERINE ❋ Zachary Rosen

i met this girl who is probably my best shot at happiness

CLOUDS LIKE WHITE MOUNTAINS ❋ Chris Riddell

Everywhere I went in that verdant land those clouds hung above with rain like boulders

CASUAL NOTES ON ADDICTION ❋ Mackenzie Matthew Perras

so i remember your square teeth bright music or dogs swimming through tall blades of green

BIG NEWS ❋ Jason Harvey

No likes. No comments

A LITTLE BIT OF FLOWER SUICIDE ❋ Greg Santos

Stay tuned. Have adult beverages with me

25,000 DAYS ❋ Noah Cebuliak

this is time, this sacred day you were given

THE MAN IS ME ❋ Wassim Hage

This is the most beautiful color, the color of your cat, the hunger in your heart

WHAT IF WE WERE SATELLITES ❋ Laura Degroot

what if we woke up one day having turned into a warm fine mist, and were taken away from our bed on a breeze

WHITE OUT ❋ Aurora Engle-Pratt

But memory defeats me. I sail in on Terror or Erebus expecting to forge a clear course, ready to map my past like the Arctic

ONLY TOGETHER & ONLY ALWAYS ❋ Jane Rohrer

yes, I understand that you can’t just say a sad thing and expect it to be profound (because it is sad)

METAPHYSICALITY ❋ Quinn Flom

on planet earth we’re eating poetry

ISSUE ❋ Gregory Zorko

i feel small in my body i don’t think i needed or asked for a body. i didn’t order it

I KEEP PETTING OUR HAMSTER IN A SLOW BUT SENSUAL FASHION MAKING HER FLAT ❋ Precious Okoyomon

sweating in my Acne jeans all my love is shoplifted

GIDDY ❋ Gregory Zorko

you light the “Justo Juez” candle and water the cactus

SÉANCE DRESSED AS DOLLY PARTON ❋ Mitchell King

I hid my eyes in my powdered fingers trying to muffle all the light I’ve gathered in the sky of this dress, bedazzled by the distance that light travels

SELF AS TRANSMISSION FROM THE SPACE AGE ❋ Mitchell King

I lost you in the riot—//maybe the future couldn’t fix our problem—//—the technicolor lane in the gold millennium—//—

[SWELL] ❋ Gabrielle Lessans

like        any        top ography        altered        ash   trays        of        earth & filth        a        gainst     my                       thigh

WHEN WE REHEARSE THE SCHOOL SHOOTING ❋ Mitchell King

how do animals know that they are in such danger, how do they feel the wind and the water like a language on their body

[DOORWAYS] ❋ Gabrielle Lessans

in my hands: a velvet oasis of mind       & its humidity                               of festival                           & of ceremony

HEY GUYS THIS IS AWFUL ❋ Hiroki Tanaka

i’m feeling very earnest today i think that means i’ll have a breakdown soon

EMPTY ANYTHING ❋ Ohara Hale

black, yes, completely I press my lips and kiss the tiny empty anything

UNTITLED ❋ Sherry Huang

The betrayal of ordinary things in their not staying ordinary

PARTS| DARLET-LIT.ONTHE BRUSH ❋ Matthew E. Duffy

now without a need to ever go back home away from the sea, away fromt’h the dustsz. sing with what might pull down the ever-which catches at the seams

MAGNETIC DAYS ❋ Rollie Pemberton

There’s no formula so you can’t know how many of these days to expect but know they don’t happen often

A: INTERLOCUTOR E: INTERLOCUTOR X: OUIJA BOARD ❋ Ali Pinkney

A: Is there human spirit more than corporeal? X: Yes. A: Does it survive death? X: Yes. A: Where does it go?

OUTSIDE IT IS SPRING AND I AM MISSING YOU ❋ Blare Coughlin

curl up tight and be a cinnamon bun beside me i will kiss all of you

POEM ACROSS FOUR MONTHS ❋ Natasha Young

We were sitting outside on blankets drinking mushroom tea and my scraggly-haired baby compassionately touched my ankle and knee while he was talking to my friends for me

THE TATTOOS WE GAVE EACH OTHER ❋ June Gehringer

there are as many words for stars as stars, as many words for love as words, just temporary forms for something nebulous