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POETRY

Niceville

Collin Callahan

A woman with hair like a telephone
line full of birds
touched my face and asked me
to her place
for lobster ravioli.
Her laugh scratched
like the concrete underbellies
of park district swimming pools.
I told her about
the television judge. After cinnamon
speckled tiramisu
she slipped me a kiss
and tightened my earmuffs.
The world grew
quiet and I learned to converse
with my fingers. They told me
I am no good.
They told me
she moved to a goat farm
in Vermont. 

The sun tips
over like a giant egg.
I inhale
computer duster through a red straw.

Artwork by Chris Norcross

Chris Norcross is a Philadelphia based Artist and musician. His work has appeared in various journals, including Chaleur Magazine, Wild Roof, ICEVIEW, and Slow Time. His current project examines the voyeuristic sentimentality of alienated spaces and people.
Collin Callahan was born in Illinois. His first collection of poetry, Thunderbird Inn, won the 2022 Minds on Fire Open Prize. His poems have appeared in Denver Quarterly, SLICE, Cream City Review, Hobart, Carve Magazine, Witness, Ninth Letter, and elsewhere. Collin holds an MFA from the University of Arkansas—where he was awarded the 2017 Walton Family Fellowship in Poetry—and is currently a PhD candidate in Creative Writing at Florida State University. He is the recipient of the 2021 Bat City Review Editors' Prize in poetry.

More Poetry

Issue 17

We Open on a Field

Michaela Brown is a Midwest transplant currently teaching English in Vigo, Spain. She is the first place recipient of the 2020 Marjorie Stover Short Story Prize and has previously been published in Unstamatic Magazine, Gone Lawn, The Daily Drunk, and elsewhere. You can find her on Twitter @mikienbrown.

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Issue 17

Parable of Sparrow and Crocodile

Originally from the DC area, Matthew Moniz has poems appearing in or forthcoming from The Iowa Review, Notre Dame Review, Crab Orchard Review, Meridian, Tupelo Quarterly, Fourteen Hills, and minnesota review. His work has been awarded Poetry by the Sea’s Kim Bridgford Memorial Sonnet Crown Contest prize and the SCMLA Poetry Prize.

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Issue 17

MY GRANDMOTHER AFTER KOREA

Arah Ko is a writer from Hawai’i and the author of Brine Orchid (YesYes Books 2025) and Animal Logic (Bull City Press 2025). Her work has appeared in American Poetry Review, Ninth Letter, The Threepenny Review, New Ohio Review, Poetry Northwest, and elsewhere. Arah edits at Surging Tide Magazine and is pursuing her Ph.D. in English at the University of Cincinnati. Catch her at arahko.com.

Read More »

More Poetry

We Open on a Field

Michaela Brown is a Midwest transplant currently teaching English in Vigo, Spain. She is the first place recipient of the 2020 Marjorie Stover Short Story Prize and has previously been published in Unstamatic Magazine, Gone Lawn, The Daily Drunk, and elsewhere. You can find her on Twitter @mikienbrown.

Read More »

Parable of Sparrow and Crocodile

Originally from the DC area, Matthew Moniz has poems appearing in or forthcoming from The Iowa Review, Notre Dame Review, Crab Orchard Review, Meridian, Tupelo Quarterly, Fourteen Hills, and minnesota review. His work has been awarded Poetry by the Sea’s Kim Bridgford Memorial Sonnet Crown Contest prize and the SCMLA Poetry Prize.

Read More »

MY GRANDMOTHER AFTER KOREA

Arah Ko is a writer from Hawai’i and the author of Brine Orchid (YesYes Books 2025) and Animal Logic (Bull City Press 2025). Her work has appeared in American Poetry Review, Ninth Letter, The Threepenny Review, New Ohio Review, Poetry Northwest, and elsewhere. Arah edits at Surging Tide Magazine and is pursuing her Ph.D. in English at the University of Cincinnati. Catch her at arahko.com.

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One Winter in Vermont

Emily Light is a poet, educator, and mother living in northern New Jersey. Her poetry can be found in such journals as Inch, Salt Hill, Cherry Tree, Cumberland River Review, and RHINO, among others.

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