yeah, okay, the world is on fire,
but I have two AC units
in my fourth floor apartment.
they’re not the window shakers,
but what Kelsy affectionately refers to
as “R2-D2s”
Caitie L. Young | SOME CALIFORNIA POLICE ARE BIASED. A REPORT SAYS THEY HAVE NO CLEAR PLANS TO FIX THAT
in my old town the white boys from College Street
hide guns, weed, & bicycle parts in a wooded area
off Conotton Creek Trail. C said even the cops
smoke back there, shoot up, & leave the needles
stuck in the trees.
Bruce Meyer | FRIENDSHIP IS A SUMMER THAT NEVER SHEDS ITS LEAVES
My grandfather’s boyhood friend
would visit on a long June afternoon,
and when it came time for him to leave,
I would walk the old men to the corner bus
that ran south toward the city.
Ken Victor | ANTHROPOLOGY
Have we come so far
and emerged nowhere
—A.I. tracking faces,
movies on demand—
Kat Cameron | OPEN FOURTH
Open fourth—relaxed but defiant
chin up, shoulders back
fingers intertwined behind her back
Terry Watada | VISIONS OF CHISATO
the clothesline stret-ch-es
across the length
of the backyard
proof of father’s handiwork
Ami J. Sanghvi | SOFT-SKIN DARLINGS OF THE TUNDRA (1)
a when is [human] only when still/“alive” to the naked eye. Our
menace’s specter-rose rise-rises poetic, enveloped by sweet-
tooth/teethed fiends of possibility, non-noxious toxicity.
Ayesha Chatterjee | SEPTEMBER
You said you asked how much
the ox-eyes cost and that I answered
midnight.
Rachel Aviva Burns | FIRST FLIGHT
She—
aroused by crispening air—
takes off, a sudden blossoming
of white wings, long feathers.
The egret flies slow.
Ungainly, lopsided.
Flaps above
the yellow grass-tips.