Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden
“What did I know, what did I know / of love’s austere and lonely offices?” — Robert Hayden
i love you to the moon & by Chen Chen
“let’s not come back, let’s go by the speed of / queer zest & stay up / there” — Chen Chen
The Dog by Gabrielle Bates
“There was no sense in me / that he was in some sort of aftermath.” — Gabrielle Bates
I Wonder If I Need the Rapture or If I Could Just Swallow A Catastrophe and Call It Good by Kelli Russell Agodon
“In a perfect world, we would slow dance / with someone we love” — Kelli Russell Agodon
Leaving the House by Yanyi
“When my voice fills in love with you. / When I sing on the outside.” — Yanyi
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”
Our Beautiful Life When It’s Filled with Shrieks by Christopher Citro
"I worry I can no longer pretend / enough to get through another / year of pretending
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?"