Category Archives: Uncategorized

by Kristine Esser Slentz VOICEMAIL POEMS · "Trauma Mama" by Kristine Esser Slentz I thought our car’s interiorwas made of blue velvetI felt bad to rub snot intoridges from under my fingernail I remember, look leftthen up at all thosepinned-up black curlsAren’t you embarrassed? You are a reflection of me.Crying looks bad–It makes me lookContinue reading “Trauma Mama”

by Ave Goorbarry VOICEMAIL POEMS · "Standing In Line For The UC" by Ave Goorbarry Ave Goorbarry is a writer from South Florida. Ave’s writing has won awards regionally from Scholastic Art and Writing and has been previously published in A Thin Slice of Anxiety, Words & Whispers, the Origami Review, and elsewhere. Ave isContinue reading “Standing In Line For The UC”

by Francess Archer Dunbar VOICEMAIL POEMS · "Rabbit Rabbit" by Francess Archer Dunbar the hare is fastthe hare multiplies, grows, jumpsover flower and foe, and is prizedfor neither fur nor flesh norfriendship to man, too small to befeared and too large to behated, burrowing beneathand in cartoon memorytransforming rocks to roadsevading the hunter’s gunquick-witted andContinue reading “Rabbit Rabbit”

by Julia Gwiazdowski VOICEMAIL POEMS · "Queer Rom-Com After Wes Craven" by Julia Gwiazdowski Julia Gwiazdowski is a Philly-born and based poet. Being gay and trans, she often writes about queerness and gender but also cannot resist ekphrastic pieces and love poems. Julia has been previously published in Wizards In Space, Stone of Madness Press,Continue reading “Queer Rom-Com after Wes Craven”

by Emily Patterson VOICEMAIL POEMS · "Phone Date" by Emily Patterson On Sunday—sheets stripped,bed bare, afternoon edging towardgold—my sister picks up on speaker phone. As she feedsher brand-new daughter—backdrop all static and shift, a chorus of coos until, suddenly,that hush of relief—my own childemerges with wordless urgency to show me the split in her fingernail,pinkContinue reading “Phone Date”

by Carson Jordan VOICEMAIL POEMS · "NO MORE BUT I MUST" by Carson Jordan I am headlining an apology tourplums and paydays in the iceboxmommy’s little hubris of godgot carried away againtailgating someone else’s rituala lesson in humility, a good humblingbent over and expelling bilelike a good time girl shoulda three calyx fold in babyContinue reading “NO MORE BUT I MUST”

by Olive Esther Kuhn VOICEMAIL POEMS · "Nex Thing" by Olive Esther Kuhn The hormonal implant has taken holdand I cannot seem to stop buying plants.A kind woman sold me a pothos whilemisgendering me over and over like petting a cat the wrong direction.I’m pushing an unwieldy orange cartat Home Depot to buy one supplicantsucculent.Continue reading “Nex Thing”

by Michelle Ortega VOICEMAIL POEMS · "Love, First" by Michelle Ortega for Joe at sixteenI want to slipbetween your ribs andentwine myselfwith your heart I want to fallasleep behindyour sternum (to exist outsideof you justisn’t enough) this I rememberthirty-five yearslater when again we meet andhold a gazethat feels softnessI have notsince you unafraidto be seenIContinue reading “Love, First”

by Stevie Green VOICEMAIL POEMS · "If I Don’t Text Back Immediately" by Stevie Green If I don’t text back immediatelyI’m not mad, I’m just Laughing because the Calm app tells me I’ve had zero mindful days / wondering if aliens had tracksuit eras at some point in their evolution of if they just skippedContinue reading “If I Don’t Text Back Immediately”

by William Ward Butler VOICEMAIL POEMS · "I Got That Dog In Me" by William Ward Butler I got that dog in me, orchestra of barking,I got work in the morning and a flock of dogsbeneath my sternum, I got bottled rage and a whole lotta corks,I’m quirked up and collapsing courts, I’m crushing quartzContinue reading “I Got that Dog in Me”