Payton Emond - Lewis University

Do you wonder / how many hands have caressed my bare body / before you pick me up?

Kamille Montoya - University of Texas at El Paso

Gold flakes from my lips,

now rusted.

I follow the hidden valleys

Stephanie Karas - Lewis University

I am not meant to see beyond the thin blue partition, peeking
in at the svelte boy with tubes encircling him like a bridle.

Shouyi Yan - California State University, Chico

Beiliu, Northern Stream
A river that never stops flowing

Our homes were made from crumbling red bricks

Cassandra Griffing - Kansas State University

After I gave you everything.

Mound by mound
you tossed me what you no longer need—

Julie Sichi - University of the Incarnate Word

Fragile desert willow blossoms,
Pink and yellow candy sprinkles,
Husks before they hit the sand.
In the Mexican desert
Even the shade is sweltering.

Olivia Mettler - Minnesota State University, Mankato

I don’t know how to bake a cake

From scratch. I don’t know how much flour

Or sugar to use, or what to set the oven at.