Suspension of Belief
byThe trees sing in Morocco. My friend heard twin sisters, a shepherd’s only daughters. Sea tones, celestial timbre. Night herons bathing in the silver bowl. By the moon, the high-water…
Poetry
WE HOMOSEXUALS PLEAD WITH OUR PEOPLE TO PLEASE HELP MAINTAIN PEACEFUL AND QUIET CONDUCT ON THE STREETS OF THE VILLAGE—MATTACHINE 1969
byWhen you have no more paper write with sound on the windows of a body, fill street with body, break street with body. We plead with our bodies to know…
My Father Recovering
byThe thudding of my father’s footsteps reaches the tiles of our bathroom floor like webbed feet slapping land. My feet make their way from under suffocating blankets that my father…
He/She/It
by1 He appears on the inside, then the outside. No, that’s not it; that’s impossible. He glides in through the misty barrier, then glides back out. Now I’m inventing things….
“Ghosting” & “My Daughter”
byGhosting The doctor tells me due to the baby’s position there is a chance he may not survive. Those words will last the rest of my life. The ghost of…
Negative
byNegative You swell and grow small diminish, never vanishing, the way I would if I were another woman. Looking at pictures of proud and needy naked strangers I see their…
Two Collaborative Poems
bySlash at the Alamo Every show is a last stand, every song the finale. Imagine the bleeding, the noise, a man tells himself there’s a purpose to every bullet. You…
Siluetas
byThese hospitals are cemeteries with walls. Don’t move me. Don’t take me. If our lives were eternal, there would be no sense in living. How could the worth of a…
Poems by Jackie Braje
byCoda for N In mid-Sunday chameleon hours you wrung linens over the tub and hung them like a picture, or a suddenness. We spoke of London and their foxes common…
Lack
byThe tragedy of the yeti is how much the yeti loves to garden. It has a knack for cultivating shrubs, a gentle claw shaped vaguely like a trowel. It speaks…