The Absence of Unnecessary Hurting

By Gretchen Primack This is the press of the earth. One star hanging
there, honking like a goose. The lake
a smudge of black juice, the hill a draped

Character Anatomy

By Amaranth Borsuk Few things the hand wished language could
do, given up on dialect's downward spiral:
words so readily betray things they're meant

By Jericho Brown They said to say goodnight
And not goodbye, unplugged
The TV when it rained. They hid

By Rachel M. Simon the name altered from parent's choosing
the threshold of a home
white gloves on the windowsill

By Jonathan B. Tucker pardon our appearance
as we grow to better serve you
says the sign on the fence

By Kim Roberts O augury seeker,
know and be aware...
In the book of divination,

By Judith Arcana You read the tiny cardboard book before
you scratch the strip under Augie's New Pizza
on the back of MIA:We still don't know

By Elliott batTzedek Across a small suburban lawn
a very large man is riding
a very large tractor mower

By Kim Roberts Wheels, whisks, wishbones,
silhouette of a tiny pine.
Birds in flight and fiddlehead ferns.

By Yvette Neisser Moreno So this is how they decided to take him—
at the end of his life,
his frame shrunken, his wild rambling days over