by JASON PECK  “My suggestion was quite simple: Put that needed code in a little capsule, and then implant that capsule next to the heart of a volunteer … if ever the President wanted to fire nuclear weapons, the only … Read more

As these poems traverse the Mexico-U.S. border, we see the speaker’s body at the physical border as she reenacts an illegal crossing, on the linguistic border as so many of the poems have rivulets of Spanish in them, and on the political border as Scenters-Zapico takes on Trump’s rhetoric about the wall. 

by JOHN DUDEK If the angels of vengeance are generous, they will place in your hands some icon of a long former love. A favorite mug you can pitch to the hard floor of a dumpster, a claddagh ring to … Read more

by BRIAN DRUCKENMILLER Donning his glossy black tights with a purple stripe down each leg, Gill Grimshaw wound electrical tape around his arms to exaggerate his biceps. Through the streaks of the locker room mirror, he couldn’t help but notice … Read more

River of Fire demonstrates the continuity of all human experience—its joys and its miseries alike.

by KATARINA PALACIOS We swept the desert when my sister came to town. Broken glass, insect husks, casings, cigarettes, small bones…we swept it all away, behind the garage. There wasn’t much we could do about the smoke from the forest … Read more

by BRAD JOHNSON At night, my wife and I lie in bed like we’re stranded together in a wooden boat in the middle of the Atlantic afraid the dawn will deliver uprooted trees caught under the overpass, bill collectors using … Read more

“Time and again Felice shows us that darkness does not have to overshadow our lives and dark humor coupled with a bit of hope might just sustain us.”

by B.J. Hollars Fifteen minutes into our first lesson at The Kung Pow School for Martial Arts, my daughter Joan and I struggle through the proper pronunciation of the word “karate.” “Ka-ra-te,” Sensei Doug demonstrates. “Carrot-y,” I parrot back. “No, … Read more

by JESSICA Q. STARK Chelsea Rathburn, Still Life with Mother and Knife (LSU Press, 2019), pp. 80 I read Chelsea Rathburn’s Still Life with Mother and Knife in the wake of my own new motherhood. My son, an 18-month-old bundle … Read more