Performance After the End of the World by Talin Tahajian
"I’ve never been good / at caring very much about language except / when it matters the most."
What We Agreed to Call “Snow” in Yorùbá by I.S. Jones
"Snow is a landscape of loneliness. // It returns to Earth if only to be touched a little longer."
Strawberry by Paisley Rekdal
"I’m going to fail simply by standing in front of you, / waving my arms in your face as if hailing a taxi: / I’m here, I’m here
I Am Not Ready To Die Yet by Aracelis Girmay
"I want to live longer. / I want to love you longer, say it again, / I want to love you longer / & sing that song / again."
Where We Are Headed by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
"At first we just say flower. How / thrilling it is to name."
You Think You Are Something Less Real Than You Are by Wendy Xu
"There is nothing / you won’t put on. You put on the darkness. / You put on some stars and even what / is between them. You put on the moon."
Myth by Natasha Trethewey
"Again and again, this constant forsaking: / my eyes open, I find you do not follow."
After Opening The New York Times I Wonder How to Write a Poem about Love by Camille T. Dungy
"To love like God can love, sometimes. / Before the kettle boils to a whistle, quiet."
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"
Turing Test by Franny Choi
"in order to contemplate lineage / you start with what you know / hands, hair, bones, sweat"