- The Five Fingers of the Hand
by Aloysius Bertrand: The thumb is this fat Flemish innkepper, mocking and saucy, who smokes by his door, beneath the sign of the double March beer.
- Fragment from a Province Drawn in Dust
“If there is water, it must come / from the skin. Mother, when // you spread our country across / the flat map of your hand” | by Malachi Black
- Decked Out at Night
“They stand apart in this world, / each one with his night, / each one with his death, / morose, bareheaded, hoarfrost-covered” | by Paul Celan
- Psalm 24
“How I love to lie down in this field—in myself: / myself in hiding, then disappearing.” | by Patrice de La Tour du Pin
- The War Works Hard
“The war works hard, day and night. / It is a muse for the tyrant’s / long speeches, / it hangs medals around generals, / it blesses poets with themes, / it makes the makers busy—” | by Dunya Mikhail
- Summit
“Because English is the lingua franca now, the term a laughable irony // we often overlook.” | by Brad Aaron Modlin
- No Artist Paints Only One Portrait
“What I mean is every shower / on this street has someone / singing or crying in it.” | by Brad Aaron Modlin
- The Hole in the Church of My Heart
“There are myths of intention circling skies / like vultures and parades of new madrigal” | by Alan Semerdjian
- Prophecy of the Heartbeat
“or the hours will drift sideways you’ll be / old in // Texas imbroglios of fire /
tracing the objects in your kitchen” | by Chad Sweeney
- The Futures
“or three days from now you’ll get up // and cough and spit and push / the lever that sets birds loose from sleep” | by Chad Sweeney
