2015 Features


2015
Jan 06
Kate Lebo, 
Quince
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
SDA, 
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
L.M. 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
SDA, 
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.