Revering All Things on Soil-Stained Knees: A Review of Home Beneath the Church by Lauren Davis

When communing with Lauren Davis’s debut poetry collection, two words primarily come to mind: “embodiment” and “intimacy.” While these are common enough terms to describe the experience of reading a good poem, the stakes are much higher in Home Beneath the Church. In this slim collection of forty-nine poems, Davis takes us on a wide-ranging journey within the realms of her marriage and the natural…

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Farewell American Graffiti Forever

fill the void by repeating phrases. repeating phrases to make it so. repeating phrases to get it right. tonight would be a perfect night to be the boston strangler. tonight would be a perfect night to cauterize the moon. when the stars are mist. when the epilogue is mine. when scaffolding fits like letters. when letters silt on the river’s clavicle. how bone bends in…

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Yelp Reviews, Warrior Queens, and Tinder Dates: A Review of Shit Cassandra Saw by Gwen E. Kirby

Shit Cassandra Saw by Gwen E. Kirby is a collection of stories about women: the women relegated to single lines in our history books and the women who are never written about at all; women on the verge of breaking down, who broke down long ago, and who have only just begun. There are the occasional men who orbit their lives, with whom they fight,…

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Purple is the Color of Healing Some Hope

I am a perennial vegetabledrinking myself purpleLoosely, we chained devilsspot a mushroom on the backyardOn the backyard sonnetOn the blessed easter of my chosenmother who sits like a strawberryin a cozy chair, I love her on my kneesshorn braids and the fish kindness do you rememberthe attunement of your youthin flowers, one foot on waterA child by the death veil surrounds, she learned from the…

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