(These are excerpts—click on the title to view the whole piece!)
 

Special Feature — Word Poems

Poems containing the words wonder, gold, fire, and nail.
 

Old Garden Fences

the sun fires, hard
as a shot
with a poolcue

D.S. Maolalai
 

Shelter in Place

A rabbit's white cotton tail flashes across the graveled path. A masked couple walking their dog approach from the left. Turn right, toward the brook instead.

Virginia Bach Folger
 

Two Cheers for the Plastic Colander

I will use the colander
to wash away worthless knowledge
the names of the seven dwarfs
how to solve quadratic equations

Claire Scott
 

The Force of a Fifth, Plus 40

You had called me at work that afternoon,
sob-screaming that you'd lost your job, would never
get another

Deborah Ketai
 

The Mystery of Your Darkness

You move lightly now, it seems, almost free
from the yoke you lugged so long in silence.

Robert Pfeiffer
 

Another New York Poem

A boy brings his folded red heart
to a first date—I'm dangerously charmed.

Jes Battis
 

Tableau

I imagine the baby is a girl; the toddler is a boy.
I'm not reading their signs, only feeling my past.

Prathim Maya Dora-Laskey
 

Missed Connection
(Spotlight Runner-Up!)

Now it's time for you to go
through security—they need to x-ray
your bag, shoes, and chest. Maybe
there's a beating muscle under your shirt,
I can't be sure.

Cat Dixon