Clad, Clawed, Clandestine Eagly Pig E I I id eye: Lie as eyes lie, I. Delineating it, disentangling inclines in lies; incidentals cast a delicate sign. Cling in line, eyeing diligent penalties, laws, claws: it’s eyes in lies. Anteceding id, laws distancing I, clasping ties, inspecting id, an eye, a lie; all ID, and stenciled, penciled eyes. … Continue reading Three Poems by Larissa Shmailo
Sunset City Friction underneath California tongues, Walking in Bakersfield heat brittle against dry ideas. I’m a crux forced into a smoke world, we lost the best of ourselves, Smoking out of chimney lungs, pressure put us down, called it a giving in. I keep thinking how that Tuesday slaughtered all my old vices, Tempted me for a shapeshift, Stoic at best, cost myself … Continue reading Two Poems by Mateo Lara
offset by glamour and the perfect pose prominent among the belles of the land digested in small amounts and refreshed frequently browsing among the misbegotten brings faulty results a veil falls down, and then again and again never letting the light penetrate to the favorite spot deathless in motion and motive, a frontier of delights from … Continue reading Two Poems by Richard Staub
THE DEAD LANDS empire equals fitness and guns and used books, if the world is state terror, he forgot joy, dripping in his skull, “it’s just a path, don’t be nervous,” promise me the rich can’t sleep, “America,” my parasite, my seizure breaking word and world, health insurance health insurance health … Continue reading Joseph Lease
500 Dead Crows ___________________________________________ Isabelle Shallcross (she/her) writes poems about the South, nature, and being a sad and problematic person under capitalism. Her favorite writers include Chris Kraus, Ross Gay, and Mira Gonzalez. She has received a scholarship to study poetry at the Bread Loaf School of English and is originally from Alabama. Continue reading Isabelle Shallcross
The Other if there wasn’t a 10% after the 90% if there was a code if the belly drank more fluid when justice sat and discussed at a round table if obliteration meant just this one time if radiation were laying out in the sun if Paris wasn’t so far if it cost less if everybody cheated if a person didn’t compress into just one … Continue reading Pazia Miller
An object by any other name I spent my day shopping for hooks then hanging them and daydreaming my tongue into your ass the straps / the latches / the eyelets / the poke holes embarrass me with their fussings I can turn red just like that The handle / the pillow / the notched / the lumpy / the striated. Of course there would … Continue reading Two Poems by Kerry Downey
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
I’m all blankets now Trying to explain my misery or why I gave the book I hated a good review or put $3 in the hat of the organization that fired me or didn’t take a stand against celebrity cancer on Kickstarter. #queerfail My closest friend tells me a film made her cringe and die, but on social media she’s … Continue reading Tara-Michelle Ziniuk
Fall 1. With dreamy eyes, you hosted my gaze and your lips… a well intensifies my thirst. ❖❖❖❖❖❖❖ 2. I wrote you into a poem because this is how I learned to host love back home… now, I am left to grieve twice the weight of loss. ❖❖❖❖❖❖❖ 3. Our eyes traced each other, and gazed through the shades of fig … Continue reading Two Poems by Nayrouz
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