Stag beetle, antlers raised Corpse mounted in resin. Preservation,nature’s baby, a human oddity, a body on displayon the desk, half paperweight half treasure. Palmed under the guise of sanctification (isn’t it beautiful?) — here is your forensic proof, the crime so, so long ago now a shadow on the waterline, the vessel submerged. Stag beetle, … Continue reading Funeral
I’m trapped between a rug and a hard place. This shiny floor keeps reproducing. I’m clinging like barnacles to the sinking ship. It is always moving, but where is it going? The captain is a bat out of hell. Wizzing through dark caves. Are you always moving? Young folks watch Tik Tok. Then they break … Continue reading Real Humans
Couldn’t look the cashier in the eye as I placed Diet Coke and cheapconcealer on the counter while Heather hid another lipgloss in her hoodie. Later, our loot spread out on her living room floor, she said to me, Not wanting to get caught isn’t the same thing as being a good girl — my … Continue reading Goods
After Stephanie Kirby The dead baby stepped off the train,Found no one waiting, no one holding aSign printed with a name to be recognizedBut not remembered. Somewhere anIrregular machine beeped. The dead babySaw our broken smiles split as we triedNot to be alone with each other. You, me, And the dead baby. Overhead lights … Continue reading Together
You appear in a class photo of everyone you’ve ever known, garbled knot of your expression. Your guide is a chance operation. Your colors, red and gold. Your parents were pole-sitters, rag-pickers. They found you in a basket of gestures. You’ve been keeping a scrapbook of sticks and grubs, swatches from a sanitary landfill. Like … Continue reading Sooth Saying
I have a little utopia in the middle of an apocalypse I have friends & sesh & fictional escapism I have a palace of mold in a city of unaffordable living I have a sacred space upon land that’s slowly shrinking I have love when all around me I see hate I have unity as … Continue reading Little Utopia
Stems once used as armor, teach me how to harden with tenderness O evergreen perennial.I carry you home with two 40 oz cervezas& some real slim thick incensenamed Renewal. I need to cover the decaythat belongs to the body of yesteryear —the tissue fibers, sinew I tied upin lavender-scented contractor bags.I situated you in the … Continue reading Ode to Bamboo Stalks I Bought at the Liquor Store
Here are Hidden Peak Press' 2023 Pushcart Prize nominees. While Seeking to Understand Her Brother's Death by Camille LebelPainkillers by Julius OlofssonWindmill Tequila by J. Alan NelsonI Miss You, I Love You by Skylar CampDaytime Fireworks by Matthew MersonFrancis The Shards by Michael Dean Clark The Pushcart Prize honors the best poetry/fiction in small presses … Continue reading 2023 Pushcart Prize Nominees
my asshole, and why I keep checking its horoscope why my secret identity is a factory-reject breast pump why I only feel close to my ancestors when I eat an apple on a church stoop the grave I’m digging with a golden shovel, cursing the bend of soft metal why I keep getting blackout … Continue reading My Therapist Found My Poems and Now She Has Questions About
After four years of working night shifts In gestures of victory and mouthing the word "boom" As the pythons have no natural predators in Florida I will make your sandwich for you By scooping out the bagel's chewy insides When humans started burning fossil fuels Because there was no more room. — BOONA DAROOM Boona … Continue reading Live Your Best Lie