Without Her
“her fine long tail waving a thin farewell/as both flew away from my life.” | by Katharyn Howd Machan
“her fine long tail waving a thin farewell/as both flew away from my life.” | by Katharyn Howd Machan
“since we couldn’t just walk across a lake,/the bed of it cracked now, bed of it dust,//dance partner of the wind” | by Rob Carney
“The dragonfly tilted its wings, curved its tail, / Your fingers as thin as a pier’s posts.” | by Nguyễn Quyén
“if flowers fruit / there will be seeds of pure tears.” | by Ý Nhi
“I looked at her / back, strong like hairy bear that kills / a bull even when she’s drunk, and I understood:” | by Hu Xudong
“and the outsized appetites/I am shedding bit by bit” | by Katherine Towler
“I have apprenticed myself to light,/to the way it moves through the world” | by Emily Portillo
“The pond rises and sways, wind-rippled/a gelatinous mirror ball waiting to fall” | by Daniel Zeiders
“Our house was a seabed of alien vines/reaching to touch the windowsills.” | by Emily Leithauser
“my son/can recognize Michael’s voice/anywhere” | by Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach
“It demands to be/ known. The gnats/ in their conductor’s/ dance.” | by Jordan Pérez
“The men’s experiment: to see if the righthand / claw, removed, might grow back.” | by Jordan Pérez
“I knew better than to protest/but my shoulders sloped/like the sides of the valley” | by Laura Voivodeship