Transmogrification by Jael Montellano
Content warning: death or dying, racism and racial slurs Even from a distance, as Zora parks their car among the maze of vehicles in the field, Xochitl can see the carnival lights dazzling ahead of them like an interstellar nebula. She gasps, “Oh my god!” “Holy shit,”...It’s in the Blood by Elizabeth de la Portilla
Content warning: death I rest on the plastic cushion. To my right stands the blood bank director, explaining alleles and radiation to me. My husband, Johnny, is at the end of the cot. I can see him just over the tips of my tennis shoes. The second tube of blood is...A Hauf an a Hauf by Peter Bennett
Content warning: discriminatory language, death/dying, ageism The cauld air slaps ma cleanly shaven face as ah step oot intae the front gairden. No in a bad way, ye unnerstaun. It’s good tae feel such a vibrant sensation in the mornin – well it’s good tae feel it...gardens around the globe by Sameeya Maqbool
my garden looks different this morning the day after I gathered a handful of soil from a bigger garden with larger stones and dropped it on my friend’s body I tiptoed away afraid I’d step on her since she’s taken to the company of bugs in a land that doesn’t want...Flotsam by A. W. Earl
Shattered by it, for a time, confused; this body that would not obey would not contain sexless simplicity but grew fat, graceless, unsaved, all mushroomed by the rain. Unlovely, I would grab my breasts as though to drag them off the bone, unwitting Amazon who drew a...American Cassava by Samuel Williams
Little black boy from the waters Whose pastimes were throwing bricks, Shooting marbles. He caught fish in empty chewing gum containers Set them free again in the rain. Black boy from the earth. He rushes to the sea walls. Till water rises to the rim, He must build a...Eighth Wonder by Beth Booth
Across the river there is another town, with more buildings and paths that go to nothing and people with faces like drunken moons hung by somebody who doesn’t understand the sky. Across the river there is another country, another empty crosstown train that stops to...A City Called Mine by Ranjini Nair
Content warning: mental illness A quiet breaking has begun. A single dry leaf crushed into asphalt. The sound of this breaking. Even quieter – can I go even quieter? A cough swallowed whole in a silent room. A grating, a friction is imperative. The promise of...Many Mothers by Nicole Dawn Haywood
The heavy smell of familiar soil each mound stirs the worms; pulls me closer and I find myself looking into a deep grave shaped like my many mothers its walls wet and slick lined with the strokes of strong fingers I taste blood and stone as I lay myself down looking...