By Olivia Koo It rained for days.not a storm,just steady enoughto fill the cracks in the drivewayand make the air smelllike endings.The ink on your notebled through the paper,letters slipping into one anotheruntil you're sorry.’wasn’t even legible anymore.I thought the sky might help,that it would take the sharpnessof that nightand smooth it into somethingI could … Continue reading What the Rain Didn’t Wash Away
Irony
By Alexis Lee In liminal space,Epiphany bloomsThen fades in eclipse,In ennui.The serendipity feels like a chimera.Leviathan in Metropolis,This totem of confusionTransforms into mosaic rhapsody,A labyrinth of alchemy.Epitaph carved on the monolith.The mind becomes a quagmire,A parallax of what is real,What is true. Alexis Lee is a high school student and emerging poet who finds inspiration … Continue reading Irony
The Cathedral Tapestry
By Irene Kim The cathedral tapestry in the twilight labyrinth Breathes dust when I brush my hand against the wallA lanternfly vessel on driftwood at the tideDrums its wings like thin paper, struggling not to drownThe compass is a mosaic of the prism and the auroraIt’s needle trembling, pointing toward a colder windMercury eclipse and … Continue reading The Cathedral Tapestry
Umbrella for Two
By Serena Park Standing in the rainBeneath the sky that weeps An elegy for oneHolding an unopened umbrellaA silent companion to the stormA quiet witness The rain speaks gentlyThe way a mother may Standing stillThe air and rain learns my shapeEach drop a promiseThat breaks apart before it reaches meStill, I look upJust in case … Continue reading Umbrella for Two
Here
By Alina Lee The middle-aged menwearing a fuzzy, apricot hoodand a brand-new purple hatwaves towards a childwho is running across the street with a big smile on his face The young man,leaning towards an old wallmade of reddish bricks and grey stonesis wrapped around a brown leather jacketand a white turtle-neck. crossing the street light … Continue reading Here
The Ring
By Katie Hong I bought it because my hands looked unfinished,because silver means something to people who notice hands.The jeweler said it would age beautifully.I wanted people to forget I had fingers without it.I practiced talking with my hands,the way people do when they're certain,the way I wasn't. I couldn’t stop adjusting itAt the meeting, … Continue reading The Ring
amazon
By Haeun Kim the door dings. slipped beneath is a plasticpackage. a thin layer of film stretches around fabric,sealed at the edges as if pressed with an iron. you will press the cloth inside with an iron, heat hissing as it seeps inside stitches. the fabric sighs, wilts, and sucuumbs at last. it melds with … Continue reading amazon
O Cruel Sky (Villanelle)
By Abdullah Bin Imran But when it happened they were asleep-mortal men made of mortal bone.Oh cruel sky, must you weep!The night grows tight, silence creepsinto thunder rumbling on the stone.But when it happened, they were asleep.The sea is vast, the river deepwith ribs and blood that is our own.Oh cruel sky, must you weep!Since … Continue reading O Cruel Sky (Villanelle)
Tribute 貢
By Peter Chengming Zhang Yé Ye爷爷Nǎi Nai 奶奶Your portraits printed on filmStanding on a shelfDining together in the living roomA melon, a cake, sometimes champagneUntil your untouched plate becomes my dinnerA séance, a shrine, a meal eaten twiceI peek through the fireInto the smell of incenseThe gateway between worldsThinking you could hear my gratefulnessPraying you … Continue reading Tribute 貢
Lift
By Allison Grayhurst If I stay under icein a house as vast as the sea,cut off from the sun,I will bloat up on anxiety’s quickening,gaining nothing but a heaviness uncurableand inevitable as iron-core gravity, heating.So I will lift myself up onto the sides ofthe cracked ridges, gaze at the clouds overheadand write my new name … Continue reading Lift
Academy of the Heart And Mind 