Poetry

In Montgomery County

By THEA MATTHEWS

 

                              Maryland, 2020

My partner wears the panopticon,
and I carry the rope. Hungry
for the rush, the chase, we locate
the missing black calf
about two-tenths of a mile
from East Silver Spring.
He’s wearing a long-sleeve
jersey T-shirt, navy blue jeans.

In Montgomery County
Read more...

Iqra

Winner of the DISQUIET Prize for Poetry

By IQRA KHAN

Watch the poet read from this piece at our Issue 28 launch party:

I begin as revelation. As explosion of glottal light against silence.
I am again asking for directions to the Haram, my ankles fluent in Arabic.

I am again asking for direction, ya Haram, my ankles flowing with Arabic!
Hagar, watch how God transforms this wilderness to civilization.

Iqra
Read more...

Roadside Blackberries

By ZACK STRAIT

There were other vehicles moving through the darkness behind us. But we didn’t notice. We forced our bodies into the brambles. We stood on our tiptoes, reached high above our heads like we were greedy for the stars that night. But we craved something attainable, we thought. We thought our need was for the wild summer blackberries. But we were foraging for another memory to sustain us through the evil days to come. And as we ate, the past ripened in clusters for us there among the thorns. I don’t know what my father thought about then, as we filled our bellies with those dark jewels, but I could almost taste my grandmother’s fruit cobbler. The blackberries, I remember, were perfect that night. They were plump and sweet. The juice didn’t stain our fingers or mouths. We ate and ate. How wonderful, how the earth offers such goodness to us without cost. And how awful.  

Roadside Blackberries
Read more...

Furry

By BRAD LEITHAUSER

Watch the poet read from this piece at our Issue 28 launch party:

 

“Happy and furry?” she inquires, 
                               of the TV— 
but I’ve tuned out. Uh-oh, this may be 
tough to unriddle. When you’re eighty-three, 

as she is, with creeping dementia—all 
sorts of imponderables float by, 
and everything the more inscrutable  

Furry
Read more...