Poetry

A Runny Nose in January by Kyle Torke

 
Love is the loose elevator cable, a hibernating bear,
A juggler with fire torches, a blister before the skin rises
With pus, a leaky shock on a heavy truck going downhill,
A shovel before the hole’s been dug or the seeds planted,
A heart monitor without any sound, a juggler with fire
Torches and no matches, a piano without [...]

Yesterday by Mitchell Untch

after you’d gone
our bodies
uncoupled in the dark
I lay in bed
and started to think of things
that are halved
apples pears
seeds
and the knives that separate them
I thought of doors
half open half closed
their wide
unexpected swings
into the middle of rooms
how they halve distances
I thought of windows
invisible seams
that separate interiors
from exteriors
from where [...]

Fleetwood Factory by Peggy Douglas

 
My son heaves plywood
on the line, where compressed air
and staples two inches long
find their rhyme: throw a board up
staple back, whack,
along paneling lines. Throw a board up
stable back, whack.
No words ever spoken.

Stud walls swabbed with industrial glue
waiting for
nailers and screwgunners
to echo and reverb.
Jigs glide along painted red lines.
No signs.
Sixteen inch centers, eighty foot walls
paneled, in [...]

A Poem for the Future Generation by Jeremy Quintero

I hope I can watch you grow up to be just like your dad // you can
rank above the both of us, he Kahuna // I maka’ainana
I will put your head in stars blessed, turn/twist/shine/spin
Mana in your palms // a prayer for those dying to manifest into those unborn
Kapu flows from veins unseen, the distance [...]

Fuck Fest for the Common Man by Jeremy Quintero

maybe Copland had it right the first time // we create nothing in wartime
maybe all Foster wanted was a banjo on his knee // oh! Susanna,
you turned out to be such a slut
 
maybe West Side Story got it wrong // there’s always a slaughter on tenth avenue
maybe Rhapsody comes in other colors (perhaps a spot [...]