Issue 41 – VAGABOND CITY

ÖZDEMIR ASAF translated by ALAN KULATTI

Özlem Bir gece,Gecede bir uyku..Uykunun içinde ben..Uyuyorum,Uykudayım,Yanımda sen. Uykunun içinde bir rüya,Rüyamda bir gece,Gecede ben..Bir yere gidiyorum,Delice..Aklımda sen. Ben seni seviyorum,Gizlice..El-pençe duruyorum,Yüzüne bakıyorum,Söylemeden,Tek hece. Seni yitiriyorumÇok karanlık bir anda..Birden uyanıyorum,Bakıyorum aydınlık;Uyuyorsun yanımda..Güzelce. Yearning A night, At night, a sleep.. Inside the sleep, me.. I’m sleeping, I’m asleep, By my side, you. Inside the sleep, a […]

Issue 41, review, Reviews + Interviews

BETHANY MARY on SLINGSHOT by Cyrée Jarelle Johnson

Slingshot by Cyrée Jarelle Johnson is a turbulent debut collection that should be on every fall reading list. His poems demonstrate skillful navigation of what it is like to see the world through queer black eyes, opening all other eyes to the alternate visibility and invisibility of this existence, the dangers of being seen by […]

Everything, Issue 41, Poetry

TAIPING by ANA CHEN

cockroach: viscera stew, eyes puddling in the milk your baby cousin vomited yesterday. by sunrise the survivors will scuttle away from the wallowing zongzi, rice gummed golden to your tongue, soybeans kissing the melted flesh of chickens your popo killed herself, hands over hinged neck. your throat curdling as the feathers tattoo the freckled refrigerator; […]

Everything, Issue 41, Poetry

ON THE BUS by BETH BARKER

You long for the sea but the city calls you, drunk at 7am. You kiss a girl with a monarch mouth, lips lilac, wings a soft letter. You feel glaring lights on skin, dizzy-tired, wishing hard for the sunset. You watch the towers, tuxedo-taped, choking on their Paco Rabanne. You listen to rain gulping pavements […]

Art, Everything, Issue 41, Reviews + Interviews

Featured Artist: s burnette

How would you describe your artistic style? Versace + Arby’s. Tammy Faye Messner + Honey Boo Boo + the Virgin Mary. Key West + Manhattan + the Research Triangle + Hell. Who / what inspires you to create? In terms of who, definitely my partner and my family/friends and other writers/artists I admire. But in […]

Everything, Issue 41, Poetry

BOYS DON’T CRY by MASON PIERCE

daughter, sister, & friend. A boy. fragmented. Creation of Adam, dropped. A fresco shatter some kind of Picasso. Where there was man there is blank space, turned inward. Nebraskan trailer, I don’t belong here. My mother calls me by a different name, speaking suddenly let’s go see the doctor dear. Tom & John are swell […]

Everything, Issue 41, Poetry

DREAM WITH PATCHWORK MOON by JAMES CROAL JACKSON

My love, I want to show you this strange moon: a quilted wine and blue, half the charcoal sky– but you are playing a game, a Crash Bandicoot offshoot where you are a humanoid frog who jumps and spins across 3-D landscapes. I ask you please come outside there is a nervous crowd gathering for […]

Everything, Issue 41, Poetry

ONE DAY I WILL DRINK THE WHOLE SKY by CYNTHIA J. ZAPATA

I have done my best to wilt, andand everyone around has taken noteand celebratedWhen they look away, I bulge my small pocketswith empty wrappers but if I’m cleverI hide them in the trunk of my car to deal with later. I never sense when the surgein the pit of my belly will creep up […]

Everything, Issue 41, Poetry

SMALL SONG FOR THE ROAD by JACOB HAMMER

Sometimes I want to tell this city it’s blinded lights faltering bus lines and shining cars right where it can shove it shove off the concrete back to the lakes the creeks even the swamps I grew through Back to the benches and tools rusted at all but the edges To kiss them with my […]

Creative Nonfiction, Everything, Issue 41

WHAT WILL by MATTHEW MERIWETHER

This is what will happen in the next three days, after I arrive. The key you leave for me in the mailbox won’t work at first. I will take it as a bad sign. I will start collecting bad signs which will form a wall preventing you from loving me. You will begin looking at […]

Everything, Issue 41, Poetry

HERE by DANI SMOTRICH-BARR

I don’t understandmuch of what youare saying anymorebut I can senseits somehowmore importantthan what you said yesterdayalthough its justmurky somethingsbrushstrokes buried in sand It’s likethe waywe usedto listento Amy Winehousestoned on theroof in the suncaring less about lyricsthan the motions of her voicecrackling out fromstaticky speakersonto exposed skin You keeptelling meto go backto the citybut I […]