Everything, Issue 71, Poetry

i thought about you again by Eli Shaw

yesterday, while lugging a box up the stairsto my new apartment, lungs aching in thestink of a hundred cracked and rotting pears soupy with august under their mother, green and sweetness-heavy. it once would’ve conjuredan image of us, older, in a perfect little domesticcountryside life somewhere, called to mind the songs about dizzying and soft love i collected […]

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Everything, Issue 71, Poetry

second puberty by Eli Shaw

i smelled jasmine today – cut my lungs wide open. and yesterday, i swear, it was fresh pears on the tree outside my windowmonths too soon. i thought of the way they filled the basketon my bicycle as it leanedagainst the stairs. deflated tires and theache of uneaten fruit. i don’t know where i’ll be when they come again […]

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Everything, Issue 71, Poetry

MRI Arcade by Eunice Lee

●●●● preposterous ●●●● how intense grief ●●●● reminds you of ●●●● games it is not: ●● pac-man, ●●● galaga, ●●●● major havoc ●●●● embarrassing ●●●● there is a face ●●●● to which grief cleaves: ● mouth, ● blip, ● gulf, ● whir, ●●●● inaccurate ●●●● the glitching face ●●●● I fight to piece: ● zip, ● clasp, ● jolt, ● wrench, ● twine, ●●●●●●●●●● shouldn’t have opened my windows to you ●●●●●●●●●● should’ve known pain pooled is more […]

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Everything, Issue 70, Poetry

Longing: A Gay Science by Mahalia Sobhani

Mahalia Sobhani (she/her) is a barista and social work student in southeastern Wisconsin. She is the oldest of ten and has a Pisces moon, which explains a lot. Her work can also be found in Catatonic Daughters and the Oakland Arts Review as well as the forthcoming Bonemilk anthology from Gutslut Press. You can find […]

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Everything, Issue 70, Poetry

Tehillim 96 by Miriam Saperstein

Miriam Saperstein is an artist, ritual-crafter and logistics maven based in Detroit, and soonmoving to Philly. Their writing and art have appeared in ctrl + v, Jewish Currents, thelickety~split, Pollux Journal, New Voices Magazine, and PROTOCOLS. You can find theirzines at miriamsaperstein.gumroad.com.

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Everything, Issue 70, Poetry

concentration, 64 by Kristine Ma

             no repeats or hesitation.i go first, ‘cause you’re the worst.             category is: taste.              in my dreams, you taste like stale lemon drops.overripe blueberries splitting down chin,             tension wrought between us like a knifeslicing into the flesh of a peach. i cradle the pitin my cheek.              dalgona kind of lethargic,seaweed-around-rice kind of unraveling,             and so […]

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Everything, Issue 70, Poetry

Heat Seeking by Britt DiBartolo

Britt DiBartolo is a poet living in western North Carolina. She recently graduated with herMaster’s in English literature from the University of Tennessee and now teaches research andwriting to high schoolers. Her work has appeared/is forthcoming in the Rising Phoenix Review,Pigeon Parade Quarterly, and elsewhere. She’s @frangipansy on Instagram.

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Everything, Issue 69, Poetry

sadcore & sleepless by Michael Russell

pause     obsess     rewind porn star Calvin Bankskneeling     leaning back     his hips bounce like a buoycaught in a tidal waveof cock     muscle     curls oh     Calvinwhen you study your reflection     do you worship the striationsin your chest? absthat cut & pushthrough the amniotic sac of your […]

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Everything, Issue 69, Poetry

history of the body by Sophie Choong

wai po falls sick in penang. through her cracked lips she still calls it pulau pinang,a palate bad-breathed, wu wei-harmonied to her language, the estuaries she carries in the seat of her spine pulau for island, for mooned blisters, volcano soresthere is a rhythm to dying bodies. when she bleeds, each scab sculpts a fragile […]

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Everything, Issue 69, Poetry

High Summer by Hua Xi

In high summer, I see lovemost clearly when I’m alone. “Shouldn’t a poet be more romantic?”someone asks me. I ask my heartif it ever thinks of me. This morning, I had breakfast by myselfat the hotel and listened to the lobby pianist. Tourists arrive early to Black Tortoise Park andI thought I saw a couple […]

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Everything, Issue 68, Poetry

Touching by Rachel Tanaka

I let my fingers lie on my bodylike my fingers are a sack of wooden stamps: delicate and foreign and someone else’s.I let my body lie under my fingers like my body is a field of tidepools:jagged, and damp, and a home to many things. I do this over and over: each objectbecoming another object. […]

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Everything, Issue 68, Poetry

begging by Tanya Azari

it’s 2019 so my New Year’s resolution is to only makedecisions on my period. in March it comes hard and fast, twice. all the bills still get paid, the countertopswiped down. i started eating again and now i can’t seem to rid myself of this hunger. i’ve decided i don’t want my life to be […]

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Everything, Issue 68, Poetry

Flood by Khushi Jain

You remind me ofScene from the Great Flood (1826) by Joseph-Désiré CourtFour pairs of handsTerrified, alarmed, hystericalClutching, gasping, yearning No, not youI remind me of this paintingIn your presenceI become the hands Khushi holds a Bachelors in English literature from the University of Delhi, India, and iscurrently pursuing a Masters in Classics from Trinity College, […]

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Everything, issue 67, Poetry

Sonnet Against Capitalism by Timothy Otte

after David Graeber In the time of plague we turned awayfrom the relentless chirp of workplayworkand placed our ears against the door, listeningfor footsteps approaching down the hallwayoutside the locked room of capitalism.In the shrinking of our circle was a new rhythm,melodies we weren’t sure how to singdrifting through the walls in snatches.With nowhere to […]

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Everything, issue 67, Poetry

Among the Minerals by Emily Wolahan

Author of Hinge (NPRP, 2015), Emily Wolahan’s poetry has appeared in Puerto del Sol, SixthFinch, and Oversound. She holds an MFA from Columbia University and is currently pursuing aPh.D. in Anthropology and Social Change (CIIS) and is a Poetry Editor at Tinderbox PoetryJournal.

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Everything, Issue 66, Poetry

The Cannibals by Sarah Haeckel

I was abducted by cannibalsLast night in my dreamsThey didn’t eat me, per se, but after I had aMore holistic understanding of cannibalismIn my own damn kitchenSomeone made a joke about Armie HammerAnd I told them offSaid these are real people’s lives.It’s nice to feel like you know where the real people areOn my left […]

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Everything, Issue 66, Poetry

Aubade with Fangs by Maddy Rane

Your brother’s pewter cross / hangs from your neck; / its dim glow / in the bittersweet light /casts a barrier between us. / In ‘Salem’s Lot they used / taped tongue depressors / to wardagainst / ravenous dead. / It seems that fragile now / the way / I’m afraid / to touch you, / […]

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Everything, Issue 66, Poetry

Autobiography by Tan Tzy Jiun

after Tomaž Šalamun’s ‘History’ Tzy Jiun has breasts the size of grapefruits. Her hair curls wantonly. Thickdendrites grow out of heroverstuffed skull, mycorrhizallike the pregnantly moist soil of forests. She has a metal hook in her wombshe cannot stop talking about.Her wet kisses gush thirst,wet as the gills of a trout. She uses tampons instead of […]

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Everything, Issue 65, Poetry

GRAND PRIX by June Lin

the track tonight, burnt asphalt and heat. the stands, rickety and fullwith ghosts of tomorrow’s morning spectators. you and me,faces pressed against the metal fence, squares of metal leaving grids on our hands. if you squint you can almost see the wall of champions,the carbon fibre smoking in the corner with its packof fellow rejects. […]

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Everything, Issue 65, Poetry

Inkwell Edith by Alex Manebur

Ed has a stench that stings like cinnamon.And still here I am in the November stull,washing our laundry while they watch us. We all sit in on the floor and thread letters through colorful string,“Bitches” “Luv” “Toxic” one bead at I time. I made a few butonly kept the one that said “Howl”. Our pants […]

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Everything, Issue 65, Poetry

Jose Chung’s From Outer Space by Valerie Loveland

Our neighbor upstairs had a party and someone yelled, “YESSS this is my jam!”, asAvril Lavigne’s “Sk8r Boi” came on. He started watching X-Files and we know exactly howmany episodes because we hear the theme song every time he plays one. He walked into our apartment thinking that he was walking into his apartment. All […]

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Everything, Issue 64, Poetry

Leaving the Kingdom by Anthony Aguero

Not the kingdom of God, being undecidedand all, nor the kingdom of this life, givenits many irregularities and the peach treewith its offspring of oranges but I admireand, dare I say it? love citrus and the decayit’s capable of. I’m capable if I want to be.It took this many years of licking salt cubes.I’m staring […]

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Everything, Issue 64, Poetry

The Future of Pumpkins by Nancy Lynée Woo

“Don’t promise a pumpkin and deliver a squash.” —Matthew Feinstein I. We nod. We sleep. We wake,wondering about the sun— every night, do we summon it?I wake up supercharged, heaving  barbells up a wall of mouths. I believe in poetry above all else. That doesn’t make me anythingbut a poor fish in a brilliant pond  of amniotic slug […]

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Everything, Issue 64, Poetry

Truism by Lyd Havens

For a brief moment I want to be (w)reckless—forget the weather, the smell of melted chocolate& jewelry rust on my grandmother’s dying skin.She said there were lemons growing outof my mouth. She knew the fruit but not my name. In the sun I am just another meltingthing. I smile at strangers with all my teeth.I […]

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Everything, Issue 64, Poetry

h a b i t u a t e by stevie redwood

you sprawl across the thistle of a weedy slope, bones splayed over the hill-belly,friends beyond your fingertips.fog between your teeth. you watch a scant coyote feebling along the flank. too much rib, less feral than winter. pluto yoking at the sun. light out of reach. this will become another day you don’t want to remember. it’s lucky you’re wired for forgetting. your housekeys,the trash you […]

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Everything, Issue 63, Poetry

A poem made entirely of questions by DT McCrea

I A swan is eating another swan.It is not beautiful.It is hideous, and bloody, and terrifying. It is also beautiful. II Your mother goes to the doctor and they finda shadow on her lung. When they open her up, insideher lung is a blossomed calendula. When the doctors askhow it got there she saysshe inhaled it […]

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Everything, Issue 63, Poetry

Vestigial Anatomy by Chukwuma Ndulue

I’ve become adept at shepherdingheartbreak to minute areas of the body,treating the lesions with smoothing iron and ice in equal measure.  I’m an imperfect mechanism,an unskilled plough hand—my pastures razed, my stained bones fallow.  I wish to beat my armsinto an instrument more useful to a worldthat’s full and waitingwith cocked hammers.           The mystery in my body          is spoiling in this climate: […]

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Everything, Issue 63, Poetry

i am so depressed i feel like jumping in the river behind my house but i won’t because i am twenty four and not eighteen by Jeremy T. Karn

after Sandra Cisneros,             in a nutshell,  i have returned to you like                              the way death returns when one gets depressed. grief has unlit everything in me back & forth,                              but i am jealous of the veinsthat form smiles on my face. Yeshua is jealous of me,                              i can do what he can’t do of me.  hallowed be […]

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Everything, Issue 62, Poetry

Chagrin Falls Between Us

for and after Kevin Bertolero Do you remember how it felt to be boys in the grass? Staining our every-thing, our nowripped jeans we wore through the knees? It was so big then, possibility; love waseverywhere and for everything. We rode our bikes to the base of the hill where theprefect tree was, we watched […]

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Everything, Issue 62, Poetry

Kessler Syndrome

Earth is a ringed planet. A teenage faggot is a body orbiting low atmosphere The ground and its people swing them up like discus, but not enough to break Escape velocity. Thousands of blue-haired children float in the solar breeze Like a Kubrickian slide. The richest men on Earth launch garbage into the stars Like […]

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Everything, Issue 62, Poetry

Two Poems by Marti Irving

Home Improvement Amongst the implied violenceof the chain and rope aisle at Home Depot,I am emboldened to make let’s-fuck eyes at strangers.Then the soft amber of the lighting fixture sectionwrings me out and I want someone to please comeand pick me up, pluck me from a mean girls’ sleepover,drive me home and put me to […]

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Everything, Issue 61, Poetry

The Things That Saved Us by Abby Bland

The things that saved us are the same as they ever were.The spring irises glazed with rain, puppies learning to walk,the feel of his hands in yours or his skin,or your own skin, soft against the bedsheets.The way water cools the throat and slakes thirst,or how a good meal softens and rounds the belly,the way […]

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Everything, Issue 61, Poetry

Many of the Times by Benin Gardner

And some of the other times and the volleyball girls in milkglass socks beating reddened hands on rival eyes, well the orange tree is right there and if ur so hungry lie beneath it with ur mouth open catch some flies swat summer in the face and the sunset will go blushred fences in between […]

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Everything, Issue 61, Poetry

Ghoulia Yelps by Rachel Mehl

The neurologist tells me I’m intriguing, a specimento write about in her research.  She’ll change my nameof course.  It will help legions of doctors.  Tegretolis shaped like baseball diamonds and tastes like grapes.  After the seizure, I could not speak or type.Day one of Tegretol I float in space.  I bump into walls.Day two I […]

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Everything, Issue 60, Poetry

The Sun | S Janus

I was reading about solar energy And the book said the sun is the most abundant source of energy available on earth And the sun said you mistake my everything for nothing And I said fuck And I said I know how that feels And my ex boyfriend looked down and said fuck And my […]

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Everything, Issue 60, Poetry

Mendel’s Lost Files | Maia Joy

a plant does not have thefunctional capacity toknowingly self-destruct; their chloroplasts do not choosewhether to accept the sunlightfrom which they photosynthesize— the sun, simply, says, “i love you,”and the plant says, “thank you,”and they continue on with their days. the plant does not apologizefor the support it accepts. itbreathes in, breathes out, and gives what […]

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Everything, Issue 60, Poetry

Habitual | Claire Denson

when the world said sink I sankI am in this way ordinaryI put pasta in the water watch it bloatevery time I think I’m new the old comes back like a stray I once fedimagine a well-read strange man I never get tired of my same storyI’ve tidied up my roomand left my inbox openin case he […]

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Everything, Issue 59, Poetry

Two Poems | Samia Saliba

high water i think i’ll live forever because that’s what sharks do. i wanna dive into myself like an ocean bleeding out on the shore, splitting sand down into sand. i wannamiss class because i’m waiting for the bus with youon it, the morning shape of your face all ears & rosyeyelids. how much i’ve forgotten. it’s […]

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Everything, Issue 59, Poetry

Measuring Distance | Justin Holliday

I wish I were deadis a perfect example of subjunctive mood.What most people don’t realizeis how to conjugate the bodyto expose how it feels to hold onto improper objects. Psychologists call thisintrojection. To engage with a man, I must deny any sign I want to touch him. If I were to tell the truth,I would explain fewer peopleknow […]

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Everything, Issue 59, Poetry

in the beginning (abecedarian on desire) | Talia Gordon

as if a single apple could destroy an ecosystem, webuck the shame of bringing foreign objects into bed,cum with no intention of conceiving. i’m lit-er-al-lyde-generate, you tell me, grinning, like,et-ym-o-logically. the very first time we fuck, i fall in rage for ever lettinggod haunt the goodhunger, finally kill the ghost inside myself. now we live an oldjoke: […]

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