Animal by travis tate
“Isn’t it a blessing? Not to be hungry, venomous, / for something more? Ha! I don’t understand // that blessing.” — travis tate
Rest House by Brandon Shimoda
“one second separates us / from breathing in / each other’s skin” — Brandon Shimoda
Starved by Tara Bray
“In this world made up of hunger and of seeking / a quiet luck to see a bird for what it is.” — Tara Bray
[God gave a Loaf to every Bird —] by Emily Dickinson
“God gave a Loaf to every Bird— / But just a Crumb— to Me— / I dare not / eat it—” — Emily Dickinson
#38 [I have observed pink monks eating blue raisins] by José García Villa
“Indeed I have observed and myself have partaken / of blue and pink raisins. But my joy was different: / My joy was to see the blue and the pink counterpointing.” — José García Villa
Glamor on the West Streets / Silver Over Everything by Hanif Abdurraqib
“isn’t it funny, to vow that you will love someone until you are dead.” — Hanif Abdurraqib
In the Tradition of Women Who’ve Blessed Me to Transfer Their Virtues by Asa Drake
“One year / in the middle of my life // I asked how full do I want to be.” — Asa Drake
In Winter by Michael Ryan
"are you smiling / at an idea met in a book / the way you smiled with your whole body / the first night we talked?"
I’ll Write the Girl by Jan Beatty
"& knows her life will always / be this biting open one thing / to leave another
I Crave Your Mouth by Pablo Neruda
"I want to eat your skin like a whole almond / I want to eat the sunbeam flaring in your lovely body" — Pablo Neruda