Author Archives: voicemailpoems

by Brittany Rogers This song is for all the women out there that been lied to by their men and I know you all been lied to over and over again. This is for y’all; yo, maybe you didn’t break the way you shoulda broke, yo but I break – Kelis Strep throat caught meContinue reading “The Year ‘Caught Out There’ Became My Theme Song”

by Rasheed Copeland We learned from the book of our fathers’ silence how to speak of young girls in the way old white men speak of game they’ve hunted and mounted on trophy walls. The same book that taught us how to make young girls fake orgasms and mourn their lost virginities while handling littleContinue reading “The Book of Silence”

by Kevin Kantor Romeo + Juliet but this time juliet doesn’t text back,romeo embraces his bisexuality,he + mercutio kiss a lot+ no one advises a young girlto drink all that nyquil Taming of the Shrew but this time no one is expected to laughwatching a man starve his wife,+ in the end, our fierce femmeContinue reading “Rewrites”

by Kolawole Samuel Adebayo Before Boko Haram guns sank holes in his skull,He was a lively boy, he was a sprinter, he was his high school’s champion. Before he became the reason for familial grief,He was the origin of my mother’s smiles.I cannot say “our mother” because Bashir is dead. He is now dust,Grasses haveContinue reading “Ode to a Lost Brother”

by Lauren Licona we’ve spent all morningstaring at the water stain onyour ceiling, until it grows into a homeland we have no name for but “here”. i mean today, i live without knowledge of my borders. i learn to unline myself.we are no longer someone’s stateless daughters. i have forty-nine cents to my name & i cannot be whittledContinue reading “Lightness Has Never Been Our Concern, But Today We Are the Opposite of Heavy”

by Rodrick Minor On a cherryplanked floor in Durham I twerk my soul          into the weekend I sweat out my devils over the crooner’s voice   An exorcism in the wee hours  Hips gyrate allusions of Jazz June in a beehive of celestial beings  Fingers pranced in air          as if the Holy Ghost graspContinue reading “AIN’T WE LUCKY WE GOT ‘EM, GOOD TIMES”

Sarah ChristianScher Sierra Laurin Parsons Shannon Elizabeth Hardwick Sean Hanrahan Erika Walsh Gavin Yuan Gao Trust Tonji Taylor Alyson Lewis Shanel Edwards Katbug Nkateko Masinga Tyler Morse Mónica Garcia Sofia Valencia

Rodrick Minor Lauren Licona Kolawole Samuel Adebayo Kevin Kantor Rasheed Copeland Brittany Rogers Gisselle Yepes Anthony Moll Chisom Okafor Warren C. Longmire Chelsea Bunn C.M. Crockford Fargo Tbakhi Laura Cronk Kiran Bath