Author Archives: voicemailpoems

Tria Wood Emryse Geye Sara Hutchinson Mariah Bosch Caroljean Gavin Taylor Jaczin Stacey Teague Zach Goldberg

by Sofia Valencia A faraway siren reminds me of a dreamin which the bathtub filled with orange fish,their viscous heads lurching from the open drain. Meanwhile, something outside caught on fireand then the fish were in the cashew trees,writhing in their quiet frenzy. How awful, I thought, to be in two placesat once and be dying inContinue reading “The Morning Hour”

by Mónica Garcia At sixteen, I was told I couldn’t hold in my voice in my sleep,and every night when I shifted my body, words followed restless sleep. My mother told me how her mother hid house keys, afraid of her daughter rising corpse-like and slipping into the night instead of just speaking, all while asleep.Continue reading “Somniluquyphobia”

by Tyler Morse may-be tonite’ll be the nite I rinse the dick that’s remained holedup in a ziploc at the foot of another week may-be sadaabe Pisces moon someone at work saysfeedback sandwich and I almostthrow up a leaf or My hands my god today god-heavy today a blownspeaker in the hours’ murky silencecasting fantasy feedback to a wishful bottom-feederContinue reading “Lucid Dreams of Being Clean”

by Nkateko Masinga I circled your bed at midnightchanting love me,then made your silence my poison& died died& still didn’t have you in the brief, bitter afterlife that ensued imagine this wasn’t a dream would you wake upand wade to sea with my soul? would you remember me? broken boatwitch with no coven & no spell book voyeur atContinue reading “Boat With No Oar”

by Katbug your faceis a silent confessional hair an evolving demarcation of time,so easily broken by the unkind curve of your brow Who sowed your eyes with that disapproval?Is it the same one who put that curve in your nose? Or is that the nose of the warmer months not wasted?a four wheeled slip a skidmarkContinue reading “To the Staring Boy on 43rd and Walnut”

by Shanel Edwards Every femme i’ve ever danced with laces in between the gaps of my teeth. glazing hands with nervous loving down my sculpted back. pressing a memory stain into itlavender and full, moving together while Etta sings At Last each note, the breaths we take between our pelvis. This is a heaven without cis men. Femme sternum a stone house drowning outContinue reading “Slowdance”

by Taylor Alyson Lewis dear icarus: this likeness scares me. where do you begin inside of me? what part of me carries your weary eyes and dripping wax wings? where do i place your desire? in between the shoulderblades? or inside the indent of the clavicle? you and i. desperate to prove our strength. weContinue reading “Icarus”

by Trust Tonji a boy is playing his guitarhis mum is singing to its rhythmspretending she isn’t dying soon the cloud is eating up the sunswallowing the day off our lives& we call it sunset believe me love is perishableI know this because my motheris dead so here is a body with no flesha mouth withContinue reading “My Mother Is a Metaphor for Leaving”

by Gavin Yuan Gao All day, I’ve been trying to discern the nature of my relationship with silence Whether it’s romance, rescue or abduction Lovers, a plausible plot Savior & saved, sure But who’d want me as their hostage? Certainly not death, who appeared before me years ago that nightas the bouncer at Gigi’s: cross-armed, big & glossy withContinue reading “Convalescence”