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July/August 2024

Cover Artist: Lynne Yun at Space Type

May all living things
be happy one day.
But let them take their time.
Jessica Abughattas

Felicia Zamora
Staceyann Chin
Ibe Liebenberg
M. Seppola Simonsen
Ronaldo V. Wilson

See Table of Contents

From this Issue

- poem
  
  Cinema
  
  By Jessica Abughattas
  
  The winter I leave him, I ask my parents to consider me
  their oldest son. To bend the rules.
  I could be a little tree, late to flourish,
  focused on my underground career.
  I tell them to buy me a house.
  They’re 15 years divorced....
  
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- poem
  
  Mother Emanuel Nine: Their Influence Was Wide
  
  By Cheryl Clarke
  
                      Mother
  Emanuel African Methodist
  Episcopal Church Nine
  Senior pastor state senator
  Name meaning “merciful”
  Church eldress, oldest to be shot
  Great grandnephew tries to shield her
          First and youngest shot
  College administrator and pastor
          Doctor her last name not a title
  Sunday school teacher
  Track coach and pastor
  Librarian
  Church sexton
  Seventy-four-year-old pastor
  
  Two played...
  
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- poem
  
  Mount Grace Priory
  
  By G.C. Waldrep
  
  It was not a question of not having the language for it—
  having two, in fact. The walking towards it,
  and then the walking away. How that felt, all the green
  gathering itself to the idea of green, lingering
  right at the edge of...
  
  Read More

Table of Contents

POEMS

Adrian Matejka
- Editor’s Note, July/August 2024
Jessica Abughattas
Cheryl Clarke
G.C. Waldrep
- Mount Grace Priory
- Poussin
Brian Sneeden
- Chimeras
Phoebe Giannisi
Brian Sneeden
- On Translating Phoebe Giannisi
Ibe Liebenberg
- while the coyotes are quiet
- it’s always three in the morning
Brandon Young
- Kimberley Johnson
- Leandra Michaels
Felicia Zamora
- I Carry a Wor{l}d Inside Me
- Xibalbá :: Tunneling
M. Seppola Simonsen
Eirill Alvilde Falck
- On Translating M. Seppola Simonsen
Erin Belieu
- Late Autumnal, with Cockroach
- According to the Study
Angela Ball
- Two Trees
Joseph O. Legaspi
- Poetry
- Poetry
- Poetry
Kinsale Drake

UP WE STEP: THE POETS OF FIRE & INK

Samiya Bashir
- The Poets of Fire & Ink: An Introduction
Sharon Bridgforth
- dem Blessings #29
Marvin K. White
- From Containment to Expansion: A Tenderloin Meditation in Two Parts
Alexis Pauline Gumbs
- blue
Phillip B. Williams
- While Reading “Sula”
Bettina Judd
- New Black
Dawn Lundy Martin
- If only
Steven G Fullwood
- I’m not excited by you
Rickey Laurentiis
- Trans Loneliness
Cheryl Boyce-Taylor
- Notice
Cheryl Clarke
- Too Much to Bear
T’ai Freedom Ford
- notes on domesticity
Avery R. Young
- when de uncola photographer instruct(s) me to smile
Letta Neely
- In 1989, the US Government Began Using Video Games to Teach Soldiers Warfare. They Admit It Ten Years Later.
R. Erica Doyle
- the black dykes at 40
C.C. Carter
- Re: New
Reginald Harris
- Training Camp
Rev. Robin G. White
- Meta
Ronaldo V. Wilson
- YxzY
Staceyann Chin
- Weeping, Nina
Dorothy Randall Gray
- Here
Pamela Sneed
- The Runaway
Rosamond S. King
- Untitled
Lenelle Moïse
- how to read
Alexis De Veaux
- For my love at the time of our ceremony
Andrea Jenkins
- (Almost): The Essence of Everything
G. Winston James
- Trick Says
JP Howard
- Dear future self
Duriel E. Harris
- oracle
Amanda Johnston
- This Is Love
Steven G Fullwood
- Family Reunion: A Personal History of Fire & Ink

COMMENT

Kim Moore
- I Give You an Onion: The Poetry of Duffy and Hill

Contributors