“What does a dead boy talk about? / Who does he love?” In a long and storied tradition of queer longing, Jonathan Carroll spins a tale of Southern yearning with a heartbeat of danger that thumps throughout the poem, effortlessly…
Welcome to LINE LEVEL: Craft Lessons from Poets of Color, a monthly column in which writer, editor, and educator Joanna Acevedo zooms in on an element of craft from the work of BIPOC poets. LINE LEVEL unfolds in three parts:…
“I arrive at the zinfandel-vineyard wedding in a lipstick-pink wrap dress with light jade-green nails. /At the altar, the groom expands his mouth to the size of a small Grecian grotto and swallows the bride.” Jackie Sabbagh uses slight surrealist…
“I am clutching tight to every / pre-bombing, every pre-drug-induced nosedive. / The pre-dawn ghost of my dead cat jamming her head / against my calf in a figure eight, gray ears flattening alternately.” In this poem, Maureen Morris uses…
“These ghosts / gave everything to us, two girls from West Virginia / who were starving for closeness, dead or alive.” Jessica Hammack delivers a poem that makes us want to hold our breath as we weave through the nuances…
“the only constant in our friendship— / she’ll block me on facebook / after we go to a movie / a month or two passes in silence / then an invite for Taiwanese food” This week, Hannah Polinski fearlessly delves into…
“Be happy, you remember your mother say / as she waved you goodbye, and immediately / you feel guilty.” Ashish Kumar Singh effortlessly depicts desperation and the search for happiness and love in this vulnerable and unflinching poem. Desperate Acts…
“during the 22’ NBA draft my ex trades away my heart, like child who trades away mother /packed lunch for roll of oreos missing the notes that say ‘I love you’” Ever wonder what happens when sports and poetry meet?…
“the blacker the berry / you know how it goes / shit is sweet / like a crime / like you stole something from it” Sticky, sweet, and honest, Aly Acevedo utilizes family and the luscious imagery of fruit to…
“I was thinking that I know it is not shame/ but the knotting and unknotting of every time you leave.” Inspired by the musings of Sylvia Plath and the imagery of William Carlos Williams, Karly Hou offers a new perspective…
