Poetry

Poem by Way of Example

By Josiah Nelson
For instance shoes. For instance feet in shoes on tiptoes to kiss. For instance fingers interlocking. For instance a thin layer of sweat between hands. For instance atoms never quite touching other...

Sonnet for a Tropical Snake

By Lindsay Bird
It took six whole children to hold the snake aloft, its skin like a bean of August swelled by buckets of squealing guinea pigs, or whatever an anaconda might need to keep...
Contest Winner

Scar Tissue

By Andrea Scott
First Place, 2024 Foster Poetry Prize For ten days I hung around on all fours, crafted a “tunes for birthing” mixtape of feminist singer-songwriters, then choked down a cocktail of castor oil...

The moon

By Luke Sawczak
The moon is almost full, I think. It watches out of place in this full world between a streetlamp and a jet as if it knew not where to stand. It sinks...

Hillfort

By Joanna Lilley
It was your birthday and we walked the green rings and felt it, our feet on grass as thick as the fleeces of cropping sheep. It wasn’t summer; we didn’t observe milkwort,...

Humorous Birthday Poem

By Sneha Subramanian Kanta
The ox does not meet the fox / until late night when everyone / is asleep in the forest. Maybe / a prefix does not meet a suffix / until everyone grows...
Contest Winner

On Speaking for the Picture of my Aunt Wearing Boxing Gloves Next to a Tree That No Longer Stands

By Ross McKie
Winner of the second 2025 Mini Contest, using the words “garrulous,” “trellis,” and “cauterize.” / / /
Contest Winner

Faultline

By Justine Berezintsev
Winner of the first 2025 Mini Contest, using the words “mnemonic,” “crepuscular,” and “coifs.” / /

Mother, O Moon

By Ata Zargarof
Tehran, 1979. You were only 10 years old— a child, and the moon became exile. He took you to the market because you wanted some shoes; held you by the hand, like...