Our 2021 Pushcart Nominees
Thank you to everyone who sent us poetry this past year, hearts laid bare. Please enjoy below our selection of poets nominated for the Pushcart Prize.
“Abandoned Sestina” by A.D. Lauren-Abunassar
On the time spent trying to prove: I am not breaking. I am growing a space for a ghost’s God to name my slow yearn for home.
“Cracked Logic” by Kim Addonizio
The fourth wall of this poem has a crack in it.
Hello, pilgrim. Welcome to my labyrinth.
“Fireworks” by Chaun Ballard
erupted has city the
shells artillery into
:gunfire &
tongue the
:smoke with thick
sirens
“A Marble Run for Another End of Days” by Kayleb Rae Candrilli
Oh, bouquet of steak knives, I want you to uncut your own steel stems and grow again. This dry heat has taken all our arid landand we need you back in the ground, serrated and rooting, arid and alive. I wish I could undo what’s been done onto all of us.
“South Side” by Taylor Byas
This is what teaches me love. Your streets, their wailing
for their dead. The way a siren becomes a mother
too.
“Mackerel” by Khalisa Rae
when I was 12,
my mother caught me
& a female friend dangling
our vaginas on the
end of the bedpost
like live bait.
