Mujer Mala
after Gloria Anzaldúa’s “Movimientos de rebeldía y las culturas que traicionan”
after the May 3, 2022 Roe V. Wade Overturn Draft Leak
Let’s be clear :: my womb
Luci Huhn
Explaining to My Nephews How the Lake Turns Over
I don’t like that they’re headed down two highways
in opposite directions, away from me, their cars
packed to the gills.
Katie Condon
Who Here Has Heard of Ether?
The meadow was like a child,
hip-height and wild. The moths
had no hope for holding
onto any shadow, let alone their own,
which
Elane Kim
Transit
I want more small kindnesses:
glass stained in every direction,
the windows stacked tall,
a looping stop. Pick a side already: the sky
or the sea. More rain or
Tamas Panitz
Within a Secret Cloud
Where to grow my orchid that will last for a thousand years …
big decisions take many tiny minds– like Dracula in his den
my persecutors
Jessica Guzman
Post-Storm Assessment
I spray X on my front door.
I set the table, plastic
on plastic, secured by stone. Two
days after the hurricane, I grill
freezer burned flanks
Conor Bracken
Firstborn
A day after the afterbirth’s been rubbed
off your head (“like a coconut
with injured sentience,” dark-haired
and howling) we call you
Everett, which means, we learn, brave
as
Brett Hanley
Texas-Louisiana Border Dive Bar
This place is a metaphor for my dysthymia.
If everything beautiful is born of wreck,
then take me to the salvage yard of my affect.
I
Guest Editor Tomás Q. Morín: A Special Feature
"When West Branch invited me to be a guest editor, I told Josh I wanted the story if it was still free. This time, to my absolute delight, it was."
Jeanne Larsen
Shadows Rippling on Bodhisattva Run
2 hundred thousand souls all still
in a rush downstream from Hiroshima.
Over the gorge,
5 bats wheel
like the ones carved in a temple
