Orchids Are Sprouting from the Floorboards by Kaveh Akbar
To climb these stairs again, bearing a tray,
Might be to find you pillowed with your books,
Your inventories listing gowns and frocks
As if preparing for a holiday.
Or, turning from the landing, I might find…
Myth by Natasha Trethewey
earth works
thick brown mud
clinging pulling
a body down
hear wounded earth cry
bequeath to me
the hoe the hope
ancestral rights
to turn the ground over
to shovel and sift…
Two Sisters, One Thinner, One Better Dressed by Beth Ann Fennelly
When my sister and I would meet at her apartment before heading out to bars, I would choose my clothes with care. I knew that when I walked through her door, she would study me, especially if a few weeks or more had passed since we’d seen each other. Sisters are envious, sure, but we were also…
Postcards to M. by Allison Benis White
That you have grown still enough to write to.
Or to be left alone — to be left alone.
A few hours from here, a field of poppies so red I want to be cut.
Stain the seams, tear myself apart…