o pain:
i’m afraid of what rot
lurks in the canopy,
pile shiny things
in the fat of my skirt
to engrave a new
entrapment map.
when did i last
feel metal, electric, free—
a temple of sparkle
in the ribs?
we each come
with our best argument.
your dogs steaming
on leashes can scent
velvety sweetbread,
osseous crack.
i swallow my spine. i vessel.
you ready your battery.
Jill Khoury is interested in the intersection of poetry, gender, and disability. She edits Rogue Agent, a journal of embodied poetry and art, and has two chapbooks: Borrowed Bodies (Pudding House, 2009) and Chance Operations (Paper Nautilus, 2016) and a full-length collection, Suites for the Modern Dancer (Sundress Publications, 2016). Find her at jillkhoury.com.
ISSUE NINETEEN: Stymy A Seller
Holly Lyn Walrath
Orbital Debris
Jane Akweley Odartey
From a Platonic Angle
Jeni De La O
After a Hurricane
Tam(sin) Blaxter
Earrings (Yves Saint Laurent, Paris)
Amy Poague
The Beforeworld: Riding the Bluest Line
Through an Archive of Sky
Chris Winfield
Identivacationing
Amie Zimmerman
Trust
Jill Khoury
chronic lyric i
Kevin Casey
Right of Way