poetry

Unharbored Elsewhere, by Rayji de Guia

You wash ashore,    cheeks sun-bleached,half-obscured              by a burst    of barnacles                 as brine rushes in           the gash             of your neck, and out. Unbodiedmust feel like living anew. If I pry                 the shells open, is there anythingbeneath the undulations           on your eye? But there is nothingto worry about; ugliness    is not a fault—to exist,            undesired,                 unbothered. Within,         let go of your needto squelch            through folds among folds        for the algae bloom.How many nights       have you longed for a body              of land never claimed, oncethe wasting flesh of the old had drowned?                                       Was it ever            a dream that youwould be                                    a muse,sprawled over a beach towel;                                    a beloved,bikini untied in the heat of summer;                                    an image,couched between horizon and shore.You would have been        unharbored elsewhere.   Of course, let us     be honest, you are regurgitatedby the ocean herself,         a skull of what remainsof a siren’s call. Here       you are, and here I am, lured                   by how appalling you are.   Rayji de Guia is a fictionist, poet, and illustrator. Her work can be found in Asian Cha, harana poetry, The Pinch, and elsewhere. She was a poet resident at Sangam House in 2019 and a fellow for fiction in the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference in 2021. Later this year, she will be a …

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Time Skip, by Alyza Taguilaso

Let X be a gash in the fabricof time that splits to showthings sixty-six million yearspast. Let Y be the sea, risingand dipping, sloshing sedimentand skeleton alike into chalk.Let the chalk scry a spell of protectioninto stone, surpassing all elixirs concoctedby modern man. Let Z be the asteroid slippinginto sleeve of space – dark tunneltowards …

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Still-life with Shrubs, by Nnadi Samuel

Autumn buzzes around us, like the killing of bees.our youthful legs still adoring crop stains,stampeding the dense thickets, honey-sweet with cicada & fallen grapes. our ripest inheritance— the luscious sting of maple leaves.osmanthus, carpeting the undergrowth ofteff grain only our bare feet stomp. we braid a garland round our necks,having wishful thoughts of asphyxiation. the …

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Deranged Sestina//or To outdress a Coffin & name it Self-harm, by Nnadi Samuel

I’m handpicked by a misphrase to where my person lies:gash in a word pool of listlessness where grief & suture hold hands. I— bandage held towards gloom in the night of my waking.the blank page below, puddled with darkness.each margin, rarified into dusk. thumb, fondling a dead braille.ghosts tiptoeing my palm in worship,in actual hand …

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Memento mori, by Ana Reisens

            Quello che siete, noi eravamo.            Quello che siamo, voi sarete.            What you are, we were.            What we are, you will be.             -Placard in the Capuchin Crypt, Rome I. The descent begins as the wind ends              and Rome dims, just beneath the pavement              where time dangles from the invisible hands              of tissues tibia, fibula, …

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The Alchemists, the Squirrels, by Robert Beveridge

The search for the perfect needlecontinues, the thread acquiredin a deal that saw you relinquishthree quinces, your grandmother,and a draft choice to be named later.Between sips, what was once ryein your shotglass seems to havebecome amaranth. The prieston the stool next to you claimsno possibility of transubstantiation;you withhold judgment. The ritualis still on, your roommate …

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The Train, by Ivana Svobodová

The train flows through the midnight of tunnels,hums inside ribs.Raindrops wink on the windowas they say goodbye to platformsthat give them a grin full of bones of cobblestones.Rustling leaves wrap around fingersthe monuments of the abandoned stations.Bezpráví,yearning of wires, mires in the mist on the glass,bared teeth of the lightning-catcherthat swallows the autumn like a …

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