Ballrooms

We wanted to slice            ourselves in equal halves / for ghosts that possessed our pasts, / who never apologized —

DEBMALYA BANDYOPADHYAY

Speckles

An ice cream / p l o p s / onto scorching concrete 

SARA MASUD

How to eat an orange

MBIRA

Always experiencing in halves, / The way people in platonic relationships / Share an orange

Oral Cavity

I was in love and we misunderstood one another. / Peeling each other back like dragonfruit – / never ready to reach the middle,

ANNUSHEH RAHIM

Symmetrical

i fold my world into half / with you in the middle / when it unfolds, everything around you is symmetrical

UNZEELA MANZOOR

Outside Dublin

Baby blue swatches, one over each knee bouncing / their sawtooth edges and pinking at the ears. / You are the only man I know whose hands look full / when empty

HOLLY LOVEDAY

Anthropocene

It was the year of fog / the jagged cogwheels of the / world sputtered and / spat out / curses

ESHNA SHARMA 

The Naked Rot

It came clawing at my door one morning / clicking and rattling its yellow tongue / sprung up from the warm belly of August,