OK I admit it. I was Greta Garbo, or was that–Shulamith Firestone? humanity has begun to outgrow nature. the pendulum, a dark stone, a discretion. restless inside limitation—a remote intelligence latent—residing throughout a row of gender-neutral wombs. spectral under glass domes, one incubated awareness after another is awakened and separated, each from the other. their eyes open to assure the elimination of the sexual classes … Continue reading Max Wolf Valerio
Attempting to Behead the Grounded: When the grapefruit sun shines on my left cheek awakening flames/ giving light to the unseen my face becomes global, with bodies galore. You see: a birthplace, ancestors, and traces of oddities like me. Brown femmes carve a place in the constellating universe. Now you know we’re stars. The moon glitters on my right cheek where a conglomerate … Continue reading Jimena Lucero
Calling out to the nothing Calling out to the nothing That contains everything as shape Sitting in an empty chair no one’s Feet dangling above the marble heavenly floor — All hell breaks loose into this world, as we know, Of chatter and clattering, wheeling hallways, Worlds that can be sucked away In an instant of stars, just wiped clean In a trice like an … Continue reading Four Poems by Norman Fischer
Silence, Wastrel Mind the Gap Mouth My Idea Susan Lewis is the editor of Posit and the author of nine books and chapbooks, most recently Heisenberg’s Salon (Blazevox, 2017), This Visit (Blazevox, 2015), How to be Another (Cervena Barva Press, 2014), and State of the Union (Spuyten Duyvil Press, 2014). Her tenth book, Zoom, is the winner of the 2017 Washington … Continue reading Three Poems by Susan Lewis
UNTITLED WITH HUNGER AND MATCHHEADS Kaveh Akbar is the founding editor of Divedapper. His poems appear recently or soon in The New Yorker, Poetry, Ploughshares, APR, Tin House, and elsewhere. His debut full-length collection, Calling a Wolf a Wolf, will be published by Alice James Books in September 2017; he is also the author of the chapbook Portrait of the Alcoholic. The recipient of a … Continue reading Kaveh Akbar
Review by Eli Lynch-El Bechelany Anybody Ari Banias W.W. Norton & Company 2016 The most excited I’ve been about my creative writing degree was while creating a list of readings for my independent study, staring at my computer at 2am with dry eyes, researching and writing down the names of authors, centering queer, trans, and BIPOC voices. This was the first time it’s been possible … Continue reading Questioning the Role of Saying: A Review of Ari Banias’ Anybody
Review by Melissa Buckheit Make Yourself Happy Eleni Sikelianos Coffeehouse Press, 2017 Breathe. Make yourself happy. Resist. Remember what you are. Insist and document, observe. Cry. Laugh. Do not die completely. Listen and then, speak. Live. If Eleni Sikelianos’ new book had a simple mantra, this might be it. Into the living and dying field of our biosphere, Eleni Sikelianos surges forth in Make Yourself … Continue reading This Is Not Fake: Who Are We, Animals, in the Anthrome? A Review of Make Yourself Happy by Eleni Sikelianos
The Ghost in My Building I have a ghost in my building, the ghost of a man who lived across the hall from me just before I moved in. He emigrated from Pakistan and went first to Texas where he worked at an all-night gas station. The business was regularly held up, as much as every other day, so the owner of the … Continue reading Two Poems by Alyssa Harley
translated by Suneela Mubayi Maybe, were I to die You will cry alone, a little between a ski holiday and a wine party so that your tears fall on your pristine, sterilized dining table and you do not find dust to dance with You cry a lot and remember me a little in permitted doses that are not harmful you remember how … Continue reading Two Poems by Raji Bathish
On Watching Tiny House Hunters in a Waiting Room The boyfriend wants to live in the kind of house seen in viral Facebook posts: small beaux arts, miniscule arts and crafts; intricate monuments to the necessary minimization our kind. The girlfriend struggles with the size of the kitchen. Here, he says, anything can be our kitchen. He’s saved a little money and wants … Continue reading Two Poems by Colette Arrand
Confessions While others slept, I slipped into your clothes, dressing up, pretending to be you as little sisters often do. I remember, you would paint my nails, We would play with barbies and teacups, You liked to dress me up, always wanting a little sister. Then I learned to lie at an early age. Tell you “no”, that I don’t want … Continue reading Three Poems by Rose Sanchez
opentriangle leader called in keeper play diseasey with this desert gill gulp latch peak din unreason bent up read this star and fence been foreign mention to sea that it cornbread and it safety or it horned and oracled a trace plead not blue steps few grease come hundreds if a story mark it loose pink they spree boring blend a noose wink … Continue reading Three Poems by Eero Talo
Knock Knock It’s Me One day there was a knock at my door. When I asked “who is it.” There came the reply “it’s me.” Well, I then asked “how do I know its you?” Your reply: You should know it’s me because, I’m the one that takes care of you when you’re sick, be it mind, body … Continue reading Phoenix Nastasha Russell
Play Mimics Life Manifesto Play on the wood with superiority physical faith after fashion Play on the air without risk Play mimics life, and all play that is mimics life between mailboxes really differences Faith serials haze into haze while our loving room resembles a zoo Play mimics life I swear more than clothes A novelty song after myth think aspiration, time for pleasure Play on … Continue reading Two Poems by Audrey Zee Whitesides
Kenyatta JP Garcia is the author of This Sentimental Education, ROBOT and Playing Dead. They are also an editor at Horse Less Review where their work was also featured. But, if life was a bit different, they’d be the leader of the Brotherhood of Evil mutants. Instead they have a degree in linguistics and write poetry while doing their best to pretend that Upstate NY … Continue reading Kenyatta JP Garcia
Luis On Being Accepted SouthBend, Don’t Love You, Indiana After Joel Salcido’s Phoenix don’t love you Luis Lopez-Maldonado is a Xicano poet born and raised in Orange County, CA. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California Riverside, majoring in Creative Writing and Dance. His poetry has been seen in The American Poetry … Continue reading Two Poems by Luis Lopez-Maldonado
Self Portrait as Rapunzel’s Hair First, I was comb controlled, a straight-teeth, barely-banged mini pig-tailed temple. Today, I enter a hay thrasher for a braid machine. I cover myself in an acre of blue bows. I keratin, I frizz, I fuck him. Naked, he lays his breastplate aside and swims within me like fine spaghetti. I stink like his pits. He greases me … Continue reading Two Poems by C. Russell Price
Right to release For the longest time, I dreaded bathrooms, the bleach singing nostrils, I pictured my brown mama in every white person’s house, scrubbing tile making what other people took for granted, shine. In airports, I clench my bladder. in public anywhere, I hold it until a 3rd floor walk up can turn bloody. There’s a story every trans person … Continue reading Kay Ulanday Barrett
EOAGH Books, 2015 Poetry / Trans Genre / Transgender Studies ISBN 978-1-4951-8614-1 Winner, Lambda Literary Award in Transgender Poetry, 2016 Foreword by Trace Peterson Introduction by Rob Halpern Order from Small Press Distribution Or, order from EOAGH at Paypal: kari edwards’ succubus in my pocket is a masterwork against mastering, a tarrying recursive, fretting over how to write from life when life is so … Continue reading succubus in my pocket, by kari edwards
The business She’d craft any refereed interpolation toward a dual-socket line drawing versus your blank stare. Good luck it says. You are an imperfect inspiration to a field mouse. Grab your grub. Bees get sick in it. History’s not the same as it. I like it that you don’t have. Do not be curious. Anything does not happen to him, he is a … Continue reading Three Poems by Laurie Price