The Talk by Sharon Olds
"She took it and took it and broke, crying out / I hate being a person! diving / into the mother / as if / into / a deep pond
Naming the Heartbeats by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
"When you / get a group of heartbeats together you get names that call out / into the evening’s first radiance of planets"
Good Bones by Maggie Smith
"Life is short and the world / is at least half terrible, and for every kind / stranger, there is one who would break you
Notebook Fragments by Ocean Vuong
"Woke up screaming with no sound. The room filling with a bluish water / called dawn."
Cardboard Urn by Michael Meyerhofer
"mother, oh sweet jesus / how I wanted to laugh." — Michael Meyerhofer
The House Was Quiet on a Winter Afternoon by David Young
"Suddenly I did not want my life / to be any different. / I was where I needed to be." — David Young
In Praise of My Sister by Wisława Szymborska
"Her soups are delicious without ulterior motives. / Her coffee doesn't spill on manuscripts." — Wisława Szymborska
Once by Sharon Olds
"He looked so unprotected, / so seamless, and shy, like a girl on a toilet," — Sharon Olds
The Hour and What Is Dead by Li-Young Lee
“At this hour, what is dead is restless / and what is living is burning.” — Li-Young Lee