Social Distance Theory

By Ashna Ali On an assemblage of screens on another firework evening
Ruthie Gilmore reminds us that abolition is not recitation.

Abuela Warns Me a Caravan Of “Esa Gente” Is Headed Our Way

By Caridad Moro-Gronlier if i should
take you
to that spot
by the water
you can’t pronounce
but love

By Siaara Freeman When I say ancestors, let’s be clear:
I mean slaves. I’m talkin’ Tennessee
cotton & Louisiana suga. I mean grave dirt.

By Cintia Santana inside
a cell
a heart

(my cousin’s)

inside
his heart
(inside
a cell)
a cluster
of cells

arrested

By Aurora Levins Morales Why do they call us "the patient"
We are not patient. We endure.

By Joselia Rebekah Hughes Black able rack able
hack able tack able
lack able slack able

By Liv Mammone The train is a creature that moves like water.
It has no eyes, only a sharp
mouth that closes on those too slow.

By Eli Clare drift
lose time
gain time

By Liza Sparks When a ponderosa pine
is over one hundred—
it sheds a layer of bark.

By Erin Hoover My child babies a squeeze bottle of craft glue
or a lipstick tube filched from my purse.
She yanks a tissue from our coffee table