Pledge of Allegiance by E.J. Koh
“When my mother tells me, under allegiance: // Be happy! When you smile happiness is chase you — / her language is a hand she lays on my head.” — E.J. Koh
Act Now & Save by Kevin Young
“Whatever the well / you want me // To fall down I will—” — Kevin Young
Mountain, Stone by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha
“Do not name your children. Let them live / nameless, seal their eyelids / and sell their voices to the nightingale.” — Lena Khalaf Tuffaha
For My Friends, in Reply to a Question by Safia Elhillo
“in my dreams / I am touching the faces of my friends, we are / each one of us touching” — Safia Elhillo
To Revolt Is To Insist On Joy by Nur Turkmani
“The poems weren’t lying. It’s true. / It’s true it’s true it’s true” — Nur Turkmani
Summer by Robin Coste Lewis
"I peeled / a banana. And cursed God—His arrogance, / His gall—to still expect our devotion / after creating love."
Egg by C.G. Hanzlicek
““Why are you always whistling?” she asks. / “Because I’m happy.” / And it’s true, / Though it stuns me to say it aloud”
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—"
apology by George Abraham
“forgive the bodies i swallowed like broken teeth: the knees i spent trying to summon god in my own mouth:” — George Abraham