Prison
By Reginald Dwayne BettsPrison is the sinner’s bouquet, house of shredded & torn
Dear John letters, upended grave of names, moon
Black kiss of a pistol’s flat side, time blueborn
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Blast
By Marie-Elizabeth MaliPulling out of Union Square station, the subway
sounds the first three notes of There's a place for us,
somewhere a place for us. A woman sits on me, shoves
we is
By Sami Mirandawe is not the singular
dotted i, black figure against
a white background.
IUDs
By Kim RobertsWheels, whisks, wishbones,
silhouette of a tiny pine.
Birds in flight and fiddlehead ferns.
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So This Is How They Decided to Take Him
By Yvette Neisser MorenoSo this is how they decided to take him—
at the end of his life,
his frame shrunken, his wild rambling days over
The Red Sweater
By Joseph O. Legaspislides down into my body, soft
lambs wool, what everybody
in school is wearing, and for me
Throw Aways
By Judith RocheThey are only boys, though murderers and rapists.
Bad skin is an issue. Candy bars a treat.
Some are fathers. Few have fathers.
Mothers Day
By Frank X WalkerWhen the universe reached out for your daughter's
daughter and she reached out for you, your hands
were too full of furniture to hold her
Verities
By Grace CavalieriMaybe she had dementia,
the old lady in the woolen hat,
I don't know, but she
Road at Ache
By Kazim AliI was whispered along the road at Ache
toward the sun-puddled gate