Volume 4

June 2022 - August 2022

This game was always just the journey to find
someone else, so we could carry on running
together

Alex Shenstone, Why Do We Play?

Alex Shenstone

Why Do We Play?

 

i feel tiny kicks in my belly
dewdrops on my cheeks
a heartbeat that isn't
my own
and i pray

Jennessa Hester, Womb Envy

Jennessa Hester

Womb Envy

 

The numbers get lower and lower
And that should make you happy but it's not enough.

Grace Sinkins, Chocolate Cake

Grace Sinkins

Chocolate Cake

 

Rachael Crosbie

Another Abduction in Nowhere

 

My son looks at me accusingly.
What can I offer him but my breast.

Anna Gasaway, The Politics of Hunger

Anna Gasaway

The Politics of Hunger

 

i whispered "beauty lies in a pure heart"
and they stated laughing.

Khushi Gupta, dying for beauty; trigger for its shine

Khushi Gupta

dying for beauty; trigger for its shine

 

Where is that distracted tailor
who sewed me together?

Nolcha Fox, I Can't Fit Into My Body

Nolcha Fox

I Can’t Fit Into My Body

 

I will not spill from my self-given wounds
Silken and sheened
Onto flat white page.
My womanhood is mine.

Claire Heinzerling, Another Trans Poem

Claire Heinzerling

Another Trans Poem

 

Uncoil the long strands of my DNA
and see how words build its base
pairs not polymers scribe,
sesh, scriba, scribhai, grammatais, dubsar.

Elyssa Tappero, scribe

Elyssa Tappero

scribe

 

This seam is one of twenty-two that kept you
with us whole and walking, holy and alive.

Robin Kinzer, Goldenhar Syndrome

Robin Kinzer

Goldenhar Syndrome

 

Beautiful goes backwards sometimes:
scars healing, skin knitting back together.

Backwards goes beautiful sometimes:
raised white moons kissed across breasts.

Robin Kinzer, Hot Air Balloon

Robin Kinzer

Hot Air Balloon

 

nickname at school was toothpick
because I was skinny and I was unequivocally confident
that I was better than everyone else

Chloe Pingeon, Theoretically Nihilistic

Chloe Pingeon

Theoretically Nihilistic

 

Jade Gaynor

Autolysis

I pray
Not for the first time
For forgiveness
And then I pray
For the first time
To be changed.

Jade Gaynor, Autolysis

 

Sara Watkins

I am my own undoing

I've been told people either
1) fight, 2) flight, 3) freeze.
Meanwhile, there's me.

Sara Watkins, I am my own undoing

 

Ewa Gerald Onyebuchi

But what is privilege

watch this, you swirl, clutching it to your chest.
watch this, a boy sits by the riverside
and molds his heart
into an origami of shapeless things.

Ewa Gerald Onyebuchi, But what is privilege

 

Lauren Theresa

The Wake

something dead must die and something needs to be born and there must be room for it all. So perhaps tomorrow I'll paint my toes. Perhaps I'll shed my skin.

Lauren Theresa, The Wake

 

jem zero

strangled by my own deliciousness

my rolls are delectable, buttered in sweat and heat rash,
my squish an amusement park of ups and downs and hills and
a sharp drop

when i realize i don't fit into my favorite dress

jem zero, strangled by my own deliciousness

 

Grace Lapointe

The Only Way to Travel

I told myself: this is what happens when you let your guard down, even for a second. From now on, I’d always be ready

Grace Lapointe, The Only Way to Travel

 

Ezra Woodger

The Way to a Man’s Heart

'Have you eaten today?' she asked.
I tried to lie but my hesitation betrayed

Ezra Woodger, The Way to a Man's Heart

 

Kristin Houlihan

Dear Body

felt pain
is real,
even in the absence
of injury.

Kristin Houlihan, Dear Body

 

Sarah Malini

To Be, To Feel

Me: driving to the dojo not for self-defense
or self-discipline,
but to feel skin to skin

Sarah Malini, To Be, To Feel

 

Didn't want

Didn't want

Didn't

Every obsession and compulsion another prayer in reverse

Tristen Sloane

Tristen Sloane

 

i wish to stay the same from all angles to all viewers,
but i bear the unfortunate condition of growth

Sol Kim, Autodecomposition of a Human Soul

Sol Kim

 

Dotted lines emerge like waves, with gaps between each wave and down the page’s middle. The text inside these gaps reads: lobsters left too long in the tank begin to ear themselves / if I am left outside too long my flesh begins to rot.

Helena Pantsis, AT THE END THE WORLD REALLY ENDS

Helena Pantsis

AT THE END THE WORLD REALLY ENDS