In My Next Life Let Me Be a Tomato by Natasha Rao
“I want to be unabashed, audacious, to gobble / space, to blush deeper each day in the sun, knowing / I’ll end up in an eager mouth.”
An Indian Girl’s Guide To Driving by Urvashi Bahuguna
“Nothing makes me forgive people / like learning I have something to teach them.”
Postcards to the Other Brown Girl in My Weightlifting Class by Tarfia Faizullah
"I do not want / to give myself—I want to be stem, / stamen, petal, not blossom, not bloom—"
Sunflowers by Jenny George
"Having died / all the way back to the root, I grow again / into a version of the thing I love"
The Light Continues by Linda Gregg
"When the sun / is gone, the light continues / high up in the sky for a while. / When I return, the moon is there. / Like a changing of the guard."
Instructions for the Journey by Pat Schneider
"It’s easy to lose this tenderly / unfolding moment. Look for it / as if it were the first green blade / after a long winter."
God Says Yes To Me by Kaylin Haught
"and she said honey / she calls me that sometimes / she said you can do just exactly / what you want to"