No Rush by Todd Dillard
“It’s quiet now, / the storm splits open like sacramental bread, / and I love you I love you. Can you hear me?” — Todd Dillard
Soot by Kaveh Akbar
"When I fell to earth // I knew the way—through the soot, into the leaves." – Kaveh Akbar
Wild Oats by W. S. Merwin
"I needed my mistakes / in their own order / to get me here" — W. S. Merwin
A Dream Deferred by Langston Hughes
"Maybe it just sags / like a heavy load. // Or does it explode?" — Langston Hughes
The Medicinal Cotton Clouds Come Down to Cover Them by Mary Jo Bang
"Neck nape a curve becoming / infinite abyss extended to wish, wish, wish," — Mary Jo Bang
No. 658 by Ono no Komachi
“the sum of those trysts / is less than a single glimpse” — Ono no Komachi
Variation on the Word Sleep by Margaret Atwood
"I would like to follow / you up the long stairway / again & become / the boat that would row you back / carefully," — Margaret Atwood