2015 Features

2015

2014

2013

2012

Kate Lebo,

Most varieties are astringent and sour / unless softened by decay

Jan 13

Amy Pickworth,

Chicken Sestina

countless times each mother named Amy / has also been a monster.

Jan 20

Emily Kendal Frey,

DADS EAT RICE, TOO (a collaborative poem by the members of OPP: Other People’s Poems)

Dad looked great in his tank top / Dad said, “How are you, really?”

Jan 27

Andy Stallings,

Geometry

The earth has a curving structure which permits / the roots of the jacaranda to sprout and blossom

Feb 03

Marielle Prince,

Religion and the Ants

You yourselves have seen— / the whole earth is mine and only mine.

Feb 10

Kevin Sampsell,

Full of More Air

And then I told you / I’m tired of birds / I want you to replace them with pianos

Feb 17

Dena Rash Guzman,

A Monster & A Line Away

I was born to make men cry, / so here I go.

Feb 24

Seth Abramson,

Mid-America

Post-internet is very New York. / Post-internet is very Los Angeles.

Mar 03

Travis Macdonald,

If You Can’t Take the Heat, Get Out of the Lava

The volcano has a name you know, / written on the tag of its t-shirt.

Mar 10

Bill Carty,

Mutual Flora

she wore / a festive red dress / in the snow appeared / like a cut flower

Mar 17

Ross Robbins,

Psychosis

Words are prickling with potential. They can be anything, they might even be themselves.

Mar 24

Shannon Barber,

Black Pussy

Black pussy ain’t good. Cry those tears for censored Black Pussy.

Mar 31

Leora Fridman,

WHICH SNOWSTORM IS STILL ALIVE

Which snowstorm / can hear me. / Which human / alights.

Apr 07

Catherine Cafferty,

Voyage

Your palm, seed to large for / any animal to carry off.

Apr 14

Zachary Scott Hamilton,

enya

Minneapolis, Huffing amylnitrate / at an 8o’s disco, alone

Apr 21

Jaimie Gusman,

Growing Up

At some point in our lives it is 1998 / and our dresses are wet.

Apr 28

Jordan Stempleman,

Song 7583479

There’s a quality, that means to be / an endorsement, that’s speaking for us.

May 05

Ryan Collins,

from A NEW AMERICAN FIELD GUIDE & SONG BOOK

You / Sing star spangled when the house lights go / Down & the pyrotechnics begin.

May 12

Rose Linke,

Shocking

If you’re looking for trouble / try just looking.

May 19

Evan White,

CLASSIC REGRESSION

I said Now / for my final masterpiece / and threw a spear into space.

May 26

Eileen G’Sell,

Portrait of My Ex with Giant Burrito

Men have died for less, and I, for one, / never asked for more.

Jun 02

Luke Bloomfield,

Warlord Subway Jam

plump men need love space and / time expressive red pants

Jun 09

Sara Renee Marshall,

Letters for Others: HBM

Under one pleated cloud shelf, / threadbare clouds.

Jun 16

Ruth Ellen Kocher,

#106LinesOnBlacknessForWhitePoetsAndPolicemen

I could take you in a fight / My white mother sang like Diana Ross

Jun 23

Brian Foley,

Beside Myself

I saw Guy about to expand and was thankful / I saw Khaled’s hair salute hair and was thankful

Jun 30

Mathias Svalina,

from THANK YOU TERROR

I swallowed / a dragonfly / & I don’t know / what comes next

Jul 07

Tracey Knapp,

WEDDING POEM

The sun sutures this certain edge / and yes, here is where they will / put down their packs

Jul 14

Sarah Louise Garrido,

Human Forces

All the stars jittering / before a force of sound. / All the light rising within.

Jul 21

Shadab Z. Hashmi,

The Smallest Drone

With a belly full of metal / and no neck / that turns to lock / you in a melting gaze

Jul 28

LM Rivera,

THE BOOK OF DEVOTIONAL CINEMA AND REPETITION IN THE BLANK

—Where heads are taken for the electricity within. / —Where eyes are left in the woods.

Aug 04

Mary Zartman,

For Your Approval

He tells us what to do with his body. / For his family he will not leave a mess.

Aug 11

Dena Rash Guzman,

I Write My Own Stories, Joseph

“I drink more whiskey & more, / and pull at my lone chin hair.”

Aug 18

Seth Abramson,

The Reason My Hair Looks So Neat All the Time

If Matt Lauer had my lifestyle, / he might not have changed his hair.

Aug 25

Lora Straub,

Short Love Poem

Pollen paints our hands, our skin bakes, basted / with inchworm spittle and stems’ broken juices.

Sep 01

Jonas Kyle-Sidell,

As Israeli Practice Runs Send Sonic Booms through the Night

Our egos silent alarms / meant to be tripped – / up. Over. On!

Sep 08

Michael Martin Shea,

from Studies in Apoplexy

there were many of us who wanted an end to it (the hair). This was before we knew its power

Sep 15

Lilly Beshore,

Soursop

The fruits are so giving in their sweetness, / even the sour ones / give sugar.

Sep 22

Kevin Sampsell,

Alone At Home At Night

I don’t care / What the radio says / It is not a beautiful night

Sep 29

Devi K. Lockwood,

Shortage

But the birds? On that day / rain rose not fell.

Oct 06

Rebecca Hazelton,

THE HITCH IN MY CHARACTER

In this image, my sadness / is a bird, and let’s assume / not blue.

Oct 13

Carrie Purcell Kahler,

View from Street

There is a smell that geranium leaves leave, / just the rounded side of sharp

Oct 20

Emily Kendal Frey,

LETTER FROM THE BACKSIDE OF MY MIND

The sun is afternoon’s death / Dude, dude, dude, dude

Oct 27

Michael Canavan,

A Long Take Of What It Takes

we needed cowboys so I learned to smoke in the old way as I sat vined to my brooding oak

Nov 03

Seth Landman,

Another World

Okay, I said, but I didn’t relax, / and it hurt to be connected so much.

Nov 10

Leora Fox,

Packing up Nola

I want / to say ma’am, I understand anxiety: / it’s a baseline. But my mouth is full / of voodoo sugar

Nov 17

Sarah Koenig,

Laundromat Owner: A To-Do List

open the washer lids / check for people inside

Nov 24

Meg Hurtado,

TRUMP CARD

Baby’s born. Take care of the baby. Great. / A traitor. And we knew he was a traitor.

Dec 01

Stephen Danos,

Merry Equestrian

Dish ran away dopily. Hum- / ming doo-wop.

Dec 16

Jeffrey Allen,

this is coyote’s dream 4

this must be what / looking-ups call fireside

Dec 23

Jaimie Gusman,

I’m All Out Of Practice

The candy canes hurt. / I hurt them.

Dec 30

Sally Delehant Haertl,

As a Model for Others

I kneel before a grade school drinking fountain / and think about Rosa Parks as I draw in water.