Salt by Jacob Sheetz-Willard
“It’s like the place we never got to, to which I keep / arriving.” — Jacob Sheetz-Willard
My Mother’s Hair by Nancy Holmes
“Two years after my mother’s death, I walk / in the soft, searing claws of the sun.” — Nancy Holmes
As Though I Was Waiting For That by W.S. Merwin
“for no reason / hearing no voice / with no promise / praying to myself / be clear” — W.S. Merwin
When I Hear People Talk in the Past Tense About Their Dead by Todd Dillard
“I call my dead mom, and she is never / too busy to answer.” — Todd Dillard
a person in my grief group shares about hummingbirds by Mikey Jones
“do you think they were searching / for my father?” — Mikey Jones
[What does it mean to square something?] by Gillian Sze
“We repeat, reshaping and destroying, always starting from the bottom.” — Gillian Sze
My Childhood Dog Jessie Once Ate A Box of 120-Count Crayolas and Shat Speckled Rainbows for a Week by Emilia Phillips
“I didn’t understand / delight // not shared. / Or pain. / Soon, the blister / melted back // into me.” — Emilia Phillips
For My Brother by Natasha Rao
“Whenever / heads touched, our / dreams were related / by blood. / It all was a kind of magic / then.” — Natasha Rao