From Jennifer Grotz’s “Listening,” in the current issue:
Water turns everything into a jewel
then puts a metal taste in the mouth
slowly replaced by dust. Which is why standing
in the rainy street you feel much richer than you are. Or, aware that everything will dry, much poorer.
You feel that way anyway in New York, and a little lost,
but let’s be honest, that’s what you want, to hide,
and like an owl, you’ve retreated not to high branches
but an anonymous skyrise.
From Brendan Grady’s “Moths,” in the current issue:
[read more]We know the moths circling the porch light,
the dolt among them breaking orbit,
dusty Icarus drawn to his demise.This isn’t new, but seventeen others
stuck on the wall have turned their wings
against it, like stoics, as if the light isn’t light,and if they move, it is only a slight flutter,
a twitch of motion, before they still again.
From Paisley Rekdal’s “Birthday Poem,” in the current issue:
It is important to remember that you will die,
lifting the fork with the sheep’s brain
lovingly speared on it to the mouth, the little
piece smooth on the one side as a baby
mouse pickled in wine; on the other, blood-
plush and intestinal atop
its bed of lentils.
From Aditi Machado’s “Outside the Aviary,” in the current issue:
There is a history of sparrow-keeping
and of the keepers. There is no community.
Only twos and threes of us, making our spells.
We speak of the diaries that have been kept
on sparrows; their masters and friends;
the letters; the legends.