Rebukes of Perfection
Howie Good
“My handmade collages are intended as a rebuke to the lifeless perfection of Photoshopped images.”
Represent: reflections on Caleb Femi’s “Poor.”
T.S.J. Harling
In 2020, Caleb Femi released his award-winning debut poetry collection, Poor, reflecting on his experiences growing up on the North Peckham estate. Fellow Londoner T.S.J. Harling offers her own reaction to the poet, filmmaker, photographer and former young people’s laureate for London.
Blind Faith
Simra Sadaf
but you still want him to stay,
so you let him fuck you,
but baby girl, he will only bring
flowers to your funeral,
Two Percent Chance of Extreme Agony
Lily Lechler
“All I want in my uterus is inaction and silence. The most violent word the IUD can decide to be? ‘Ineffective.’”
Sheila Maldonado: The Poet as Pariah
An interview with Sheila Maldonado, self-proclaimed “unknown de facto colony bastard,” on her most recent poetry collection, that’s what you get.
Control Alt Delete
Hedayat Reda
They say that patience is a virtue.
If so, then wasn’t Sisyphus
the most patient of us all?
A Concept Album for the Outcasts
Mark McConville
In the wake of the loss of his mother, Mark McConville reflects on the impact of My Chemical Romance’s 2006 album, The Black Parade
Nostalgia of an Incomplete Christmas
Okolo Chinua
“I'm writing this piece about nostalgia, wondering what it would be like, a Christmas without Mama.”
Home Voyáge
Ruth Manino
After five decades together, refusing to let a pandemic upend the romance of their golden years.
After Bathing, I Yearn for Smoke
Christel Thompson
A poem about rituals, cleansing, and higher powers.
Still Life
Christopher Linforth
He kept a stiff upper lip, and lower lip, and brow, and gaze…
First Light
Faye Rapoport DesPres
A poem strictly for the birds—and those who tend to their baths.
Tragedy Mash
Haley Jenkins
“If you ever see me eating sweet potato mash out of a saucepan, you know it’s bad news.”
HAPPIER NEW YEAR
C. Adán Cabrera
“let us, at least today, embrace the yet-to-be
while we still pine
for a happier tomorrow.”
Self-Portrait as Friend, or Variations of a Hallmark Greeting Card
Alton Melvar M Dapanas
“I was the Gone Girl, you were the after-nuclear attack thriving cockroach.”
