By Mara Adamitz Scrupe I see myself as seductress                      believer ( dulcius ex asperis ) in the rush of hope & hardship toward the tide of sweet license             I am purposeful: a seeker a daughter of an earthly epoch (& an eyeblink away from the next) a siren of desire in proximity to virtue (though evidently not close enough) I may be an archetype or a means to an end (in a quagmire of uncertainty                I wonder at the clarity of the upright ringe

By Savannah Smyth She lay on the slab, White sheets hitched up like a skirt, One red eye, pink as the morning, Interlocked with mine as I wiped the pus from her petticoat. When I asked why she was naked, Chest bare, chest broken- he said ‘The dead have a funny way of flirting.’   I averted my gaze as I plunged my fingers into her chest, Rooted around in ruby until I found it- With her beaten heart in my hands I wondered, How carelessly others had held it before me. Spotted wi

By Zhengyang Tang To flee, or to look, or only to listen? Baku, its nose curling round the iron cage. From afar, a shrillness thick with ears, noses, and throats.   Like the smile you choose for New Year, corners of your mouth grow ever more dazzling. Flesh-zippers split open long, pale torsos, the knives jerking, spewing waves of reek and brine—in the air, red water worms’ carnival.   Breathe now; loosen your billions of warm, damp alveoli. May you have eyes ringed like Satu