a good woman would never
By Sylvia Beatofor years you told no one
how you cried yourself to sleep
after the doctor held your hand
Calling poets to a greater role in public life and fostering a national network of socially engaged poets.
By Sylvia Beatofor years you told no one
how you cried yourself to sleep
after the doctor held your hand
By Barbara Costas-BiggsBefore I was grown and called lovers
lovers. Before I was a mother and called
momma. Before I considered myself anything
By Tara BettsI am sitting in a café with my boy
that I have known longer than my
students have been alive, before the birth
By Anastacia-Reneethe cedar tree could not comprehend
the crime could not comprehend a leaning
a lynching a love gone wrong
By Christopher SotoI’m his // retired slut // on food stamps // forever
Sniffing horse tranquilizer // seeing digital dreams
Like a kitten // with eyes sewn shut // like syzygy
By Joseph RossWhen you walk past Klans-
men, smiling at you
on your way into the court
house, wondering how
By Fred Joinera pocket can sometimes be
a kind of prison,
I have never lived in
By Esther LinAfter learning his appointment was canceled
and his senior bus won’t come for another two
hours my father calls from his waiting room
By Lauren CampThe soup cooks for an hour while vultures and buzzards pluck the market.
My father wipes his forehead with a white cloth.
Once, each day began with khubz and samoon