Art by Ta-coumba Aiken
When Words Are Not Enough
By Anh-Hoa Thi Nguyen ● 2019
For Philando Castile, his family, and our community He was no one to me, but never no body Yet in an instant he became every body Every body sacrificed Every
Art by Moriah Pratt
Philando Castile
By Norita Dittberner-Jax ● 2019
In that Cathedral atop the highest hill in Saint Paul, we gathered for Philando. He came on a white catafalque drawn by horses, his coffin carried up the hill by
Art by Sandra Menefee Taylor
If I Declare the Obvious
By Kayla Gray ● 2019
After Ada Límon’s “The Conditional” What if you stayed a little longer? What if you told the afterlife to shove it? What if I picked up the phone to your
Art by Tom McGregor
Glass Womb
By Rebecca Frost ● 2019
In the crystal hothouse to escape the cold I am here, at last. Wrapped myself in gray wool, blue parka, scarf, mittens, galoshes. Tissue in my pocket. Slipped just once
Art by Susan Solomon
Alzheimer’s Lament
By Georgia Greeley ● 2019
Right this moment, in this place, Mother doesn’t know me, her daughter; yet she is still glad to see me and talks gaily. She is happy and cared for. Right
Art by Kristi Abbott
Listening
By Tim Nolan ● 2019
I learned about listening from my grandmother Ruth who allowed great silences to live and breathe in a conversation. She then would say the most apt thing, having thought about
Art by Sara Endalew
Wiigwaasabak
By Marcie Rendon ● 2019
Our ancestors dreamt your future The iron rail, Angus cows slumbering in shorn prairie The buffalo remembered only on the metal That buys and sells on the grain exchange There
of a time
By M. Wright ● 2017
damp hours dried by coexistence these trumpet calls reverberate through century-old buildings but not everyone can follow the horns. so a few of us linger in the empty square, dry
Art by Immanuel Bratzel
Tell me again
By Julia Klatt Singer ● 2017
about the man with the pear tree who lost his wife after fifty-six years of marriage and how he had that old gnarled tree in his backyard, and that that
Art by Leann E. Johnson
Old Rondo
By Donte Collins ● 2015
we were Ferris wheel watchers firefly fighters dollar store cap gun robbers cops and Sunday creased collars private school scholars giving the church basket the dollars our mothers slipped into our pockets seconds before.
Eating Philosophy
2015
Waitress walking across the bridge still smell like kitchen. Want to serve you my seven spice butter sauce blueberry eyes freshly baked buns grated parmesan hair.
Art by Chad Hambright
Good River Feeling Bad
By J. Otis Powell‽ ● 2015
Her voice is deep water, Though she’s too shallow this year for ships, Her body more round than angular, When I ask her questions I get more, Answers than I know what to do with, She says her name in whispers