Poetry
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By Sarah Herrington Aquarius š¤ | Sagittarius ā¾ | Sagittarius ā This piece has been selected by our editors to be nominated for the 2027 Pushcart Prize. At the writing workshop they told me not to write a body,because a bodyās been told before. And if Iām not a mother, Iām a dead body.And if Iām…
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By Veronica Tucker Cancer š¤ | Pisces ā¾ | Aquarius ā In September, the clinic mothsdie politely in the light box, wings folded like discharge papersno one read before leaving. Outside, maples loosentheir red instruments. Inside, I lift a splinterfrom a child’s palm. It comes out whole,dark,botanical,a little coffinthe skin had almost loved. His mother…
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By Shloka Ettna Leo š¤ | Leo ā¾ | Taurus ā I light a candlefor all the graysthat arrived in my haira year ago.I hadnāt wantedthem there.Grey, the color of wherethe body sometimeslives its sorrows.In the fall I see a friendwith a beardsome years grayand I remembergrey, also howthe bodyexpresses its love,after loss.So I wish…
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By LeeAnn Olivier Taurus š¤ | Leo ā¾ | Libra ā Grainy and sun-spotted, first the curveof your back a quick shadow, then dusk,then parasite sky of no color, each fleckedspindle splitting a terrible sea of dead stars.Something thundered from the wreckage,a great black scavenger brooding aboveus, hushed and holy, the plastic clack of beetle-backs…
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By Najla Elmachtoub Libra š¤ | Sagittarius ā¾ | Leo ā My arrival on earth is battleUnanchored lone seedArmed only with a memory:Belonging is birthrightRoots perseverant penetrateIndiscriminately through layersThickening with confidenceWelcome homeStubborn soil now transformedLets overgrown neighborsFeast on nutritious softness My stalk ascendsāDarkness counterbalancedSun teaches me to receiveIn gratitude I mirror itDressed in yellowAbsorbing its…
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By Clarabelle Miray Fields āon imagining Persephone as Hebeloma aminophilum, aka corpse fungus Hades is almost handsomein death, his face finally peacefulafter an eternity of bringing others suffering,blood quietly pooling beneathhis fallen limbs as she moves slowlyup his body, her loving fingertipsgently bruising blooms of decayalong his arms and his legs, blotted blossomingsof soft purple…
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By Jenna V. Wray Nowhere, U.S.A. My patched-up knees, your cigarettes,the mother wound, the fresh regretsāthereās something gothic in the wayour loveliness is in decay. We are that gritty, that gas-station pretty,driving men to cross state lines& moral ones, the world a ringwe wear in the navel. Grown up on Wic, we burn quickas Roman…
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By Mahailey Oliver Pisces š¤ | Capricorn ā¾ | Pisces ā My first nameās from my great grandma,my middle nameās from my mom,my last nameās from my dadĀ Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Aināt a single partĀ Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā of me thatās mine. I recline into the cattailsand switchgrass. Cracked knucklesfeel the burn of the sun,slick sweat sliding from clammy palmsto ruddy earth underneath.…
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By Bella Melardi Is it better to cup the burning, to wake each morning already ash-tongued, waiting for the hour your body dimly constellates itself into ruin, a graveyard flickering with small, exhausted suns, or is it better to carry nothing, hands rinsed clean of wanting? I have wanted to etch something into the world…
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By David Williamson Virgo š¤ | Virgo ā¾ | Capricorn ā i cradle my thumb, it was jammed betweena softball and the afternoon glare.your sorryās and sunraysstill throb with the bruise. you apologize, not for your aim,but for love poems whisperedin fleeting glances, for too fewcootie catchers and origami hearts,for sunset gossip unableto set the…