Resilient Pieholes

fermented drip clingthroat pigeons freckle a tidy sky hearty spread peacock tail duck a lasso suck a hummmmmmmm flamingos shimmer abattoir pink curdlediron stainplay (there must be a lesson here) bushel of lemon yellow thrashers milkstain sweet summer syrup slurp beach sticky with corvids downtown atlanta speckled in seagulls fermentedcare clingcut a hummingbird ducks a …

The hose spat once, then died.I carried buckets to the thirsty ones, Umma’s tomatoes hanging tired on their stakes. Her mint curled in its pot.At dawn, as porch lights slept, I shoveled handfuls of earth until worms surfaced, folded them into fresh soil like secrets. A bee landed on my wrist, stayed. I let it.The …

The submission window opens—Diaspora Issue.Mango framed like a moon, perfect bruise marbling the center.Two tabs glow; one for guidelines, one for their subtext.I hold the cursor over Withdraw the way I hover at crosswalks.The form asks demographics, then stars the line when I skip it.Sir, the special? I nod at the polite waiter. The special.Last …

Architecture in the harp of the heart. I make my hands into watering cans. A friend cooks Condolence Lasagna. A neighbor neighbors her elder. Each day, the world asks to be born. Each day, the world wants to know who will mother the world. As I write this, garden ants snatch legs up my arms. …

“Xetery!” Joyce shrieked, hurling Great Grub magazine the length of her spacious kitchen. The cover shot of her own airbrushed face sailed over the breakfast bar and her husband Roger then hit the wall and crumpled onto the spotless floor. Roger looked up from his croissant. “What the…?” “Xetery!” Joyce barked and stormed out. “Xetery?” …

Jeanne Yu is an emerging poet, life-long environmentalist, an engineer and a mom who loves to hike in the beautiful Pacific Northwest forests. She completed her MFA at Pacific University in January 2023. Jeanne’s work can be found in Rattle, Breakwater Review, Paper Dragon, Intima, The Inflectionist Review, New Letters, Otterhouse Arts, and the Oregon …

Absent billions, conjure dumplings: eggs, flour, gleaming hands interlaced, jam jars kept loose-lidded. Muster nectar. Open piquant quinces. Ribbons strung through unlatched vaulted windows,wind-waved, violet, umber, turquoise. Read, reread. Quote poets on needful matters, lunar kennings. Jump into handsprings, giddy for everything—drifting, clapping bells, alleluias. Anna Lena Phillips Bell is the author of Ornament, winner …

Please put the hearts on a skewer—you can call theman appetizer if you want to, charge me more than they are worth. I’ll buy it. I only have an appetite for what’s unwanted;all the foods I grew up on now made gourmet.It’s the fish collar I want, bony triangle of tendertucked between the gills, a …

the golden oak kitchen cabinet crashed to the floor this morning just as I was simmering a dream of caribou and wolves nearly clipped the corner off the sleepfog swirling like eggs in a teflon frypan a mug of tea splattered when it slipped my grip shocked by the shriek of the cabinet’s unhinging now …

Only you would exit that way, your cashmere sweater draped on a chair, a lemon you nicked in your pocket. Only you could say when you don’t spend money on yourself, people notice, and leave me believing it was sage advice. Only you served up the perfect cappuccino – at Marco’s, at Besaw’s, and in …