Danika Ogawa- University of North Dakota

Nine was fresh.

Suck it in suck it in suck it in suck it in

I hope it’s in my head,

I puckered and moved like jello.

Cover it up cover it up cover it up cover it up

Mary McCall- College of Charleston

You repeat those words in your mind

until they become foreign.

You were spiraling on a never-ending slope

into the inescapable part of you that is him.

Madelin Glasser- The College of Saint Rose

Zodiac killers

Young scarlet harlots with

Xanny pills for free

Women dream of

Velvet drapes and red carpet

Utopia, with no escape from

Jake Steimle- Brighman Young University

The line across the horizon

Marks the front lines of a war

A battle that has lasted since

The beginning of the earth

Alan Valenzuela- University of the Incarnate Word

When the sun met the moon,

It was a sight to behold.

For the sun was ablaze with light,

And the moon calm and cold.

Mathilda Kunz- St. Lawrence University

i’m grateful for dreams

even if nightmares last longer

brief moments of light

that fight for control

Adina-Marie Torres- University of the Incarnate Word

your girlhood dies the first time you bleed

and your father cries

you don’t understand why

and then you do

Melena Barron- Brigham Young University

B buzzes around

bringing brothers and best friends

It’s like the moment my breath is taken

because of a boy.

what a stupid reason.

Janelle De Jesus - University of the Incarnate Word

you are poetry material.

how am i the poet,

but you are so effortlessly poetic?

Savannah Stutevoss- University of the Incarnate Word

when i was little i had a fish tank

it would sit above the piano and every day i would practice my little songs and stare at the fish

two angelfish i had named Daniel and Zebra

Kayla Goode- Georgia College & State University

I’m kneeling next to the bed where my mother

used to sleep—elbows sinking into the foam

mattress topper, forehead glued to where

she would lay her knees. I think

Jenna Koch- Marquette University

we paint the French doors over with a quilt,

each fabric square fills the windows— no one can visit us but the sun,

until after the first rainstorm, then we’ll open up all the windows

& let the people pour in.

Alicia Charron- Bowling Green State University

The childhood

memories of being

nothing in

father’s presence

as he lays there

a ghost

Eleanor West- Ithaca College

I wanted it to be perfect. So I gave you what you wanted (sexually), and let my last little dream

die. When I wanted perfection over dreams, I knew I was finally a woman. In my darkest

womanly fantasies, I reimagine my hair, my eyes, my genitals. Boys, be honest. What makes

a girl instantly unattractive?

James Boscher- University of the Incarnate Word

South, where the border is set,

Lies a town, forgotten to the rest of you.

This is where my eyes first created memories.

Where they saw the sun drowning the city,

It’s endless ocean of light drying the lives of people.

Alix Rogé- University of the Incarnate Word

And then, among the roar of the

road, the rustle of

aircraft, the ramble of the water

heater furnace,

a sprinkle.

Damien Diaz- University of California-Irvine

Lost inside an endless space

others went without a trace

singled mind expelled the hive

Consciousness left far behind from me

Samantha Riordan- California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo

Her cocktail hour was sacred

She sipped her dirty martini

With the same reverence

As the blood of Jesus Christ himself

Jack Gaulter- Honors Tutorial College, Ohio University

louise’s father has a cough

that comes from the depth of his lungs,

it curls up in his chest

and sits up in its nest,

ready to pounce when he runs.

Juliann Bolado- University of the Incarnate Word

We the children are dying,

for your sins.

Our schoolhouse cubbies

stuffed with ballots instead of stuffies.

They say boys don’t cry,

I watch in horror knowing why.