Author Archives: voicemailpoems

by Madeleine K. Corley VOICEMAIL POEMS · "Anniversary" by Madeleine K. Corley I read someone found 4,000 year old yeastand with it, made a loaf of bread. You can’t denythis proves time travel is real.So soon, when it might beJune, I will forgetto flip the calendar marking ONE YEARUNTIL OUR WEDDING!!! circled in Sharpie.The endContinue reading “Anniversary”

by Felix Lecocq VOICEMAIL POEMS · "Elegy for a Snake" by Felix Lecocq Felix Lecocq is a writer and copyeditor living in Chicago. His writing hasappeared or is forthcoming in *HAD*, *Milk Candy Review, **Peach Mag*, andelsewhere. His chapbook of lyric essays, *Mosquito: A Memoir* (2022), waspublished through the University of Chicago Migration Stories Project.Continue reading “Elegy for a Snake”

by Dev Murphy VOICEMAIL POEMS · "Girls" by Dev Murphy When it was freezing they still sent us out.And we stood pathetically on the asphalt by themonkey bars and the tractor tires, five or six of us girlswith the plush of our coats pressed together—a giant blob of disinterested chilliness.Foreheads against foreheads,communal breath.And we whinedContinue reading “Girls”

Anthony Moll Melissa Ferrer & Gina Myers Basia Wilson Maxana Quinn Malvika Jolly Marisa Siegel Jonathan Chan Nicole Steinberg Kay E. Bancroft Amrita Chakraborty Sean Hanrahan Tessa Shea Whitehead Kathryn Kysar Jessy Edwards Layla Lenhardt

by Layla Lenhardt VOICEMAIL POEMS · "South Paw" by Layla Lenhardt It’s not because I reached upand tucked your hair behindyour ear in front of Michaelon Halloween, or the sexin my truck in the tattoo shopparking lot or that timeyou were yellowed by the sun. It’s the not knowing what to call youto my coworkers.Continue reading “South Paw”

by Jessy Edwards VOICEMAIL POEMS · "Socks" by Jessy Edwards Another thing better enjoyed together,I washed your two, long, black ribbed ones,my ankle-length ochre ones,and when I shook everything onto the bed to fold,mine had nestled inside yourslike kidney stones,all four still sopping wet,sodden stacking dollsclinging to one anotherin that hot and violent tumbledryer—notorious forContinue reading “Socks”

by Kathryn Kysar VOICEMAIL POEMS · "After You Leave" by Kathryn Kysar We keep each other out now.Grief winds the strings of my neck,my shoulders, rolling mad intothe sour valleys of fertilized fields,hacking the next cord of rotten wood. On my bridal day, I slept in the sheltersof pines, nimble on the floor of needles.SoundsContinue reading “After You Leave”

by Tessa Shea Whitehead VOICEMAIL POEMS · "Goldhood" by Tessa Shea Whitehead I still eat string cheeseand sit on the kitchen counter.Toe the acorns on our driveway from the oak,smell the rain-stained concrete andbright green, baby grass,regrown after the fires.The secrets I kept as a kid –climbing Coyote Hill at night,playing alone by the willowContinue reading “Goldhood”

by Sean Hanrahan VOICEMAIL POEMS · "Thinking of Reincarnation While Washing the Dishes" by Sean Hanrahan The romantic part of me wants to believein reincarnation, so I don’t hurt anyone, so I don’t make any mistakeson my way back to you. We can make sure we don’t hurt each otherover the decades. We can growContinue reading “Thinking of Reincarnation While Washing the Dishes”

by Amrita Chakraborty VOICEMAIL POEMS · "God Should Knock" by Amrita Chakraborty God should ___, if he wants me. God should be a nervous slip of a kid. God should pick up the altar and make flower petals float. God should draw a shaky self-portrait. God shouldnotbe indivisible. That was one word that always curledContinue reading “God Should Knock”