miCRo: “사랑니: (n) wisdom teeth” by Su Cho
When the speaker discovers that “wisdom teeth” in English translates to “love teeth” in Korean, the poem unspools into a stunning reflection on false translation and the gap between culture and identity.
miCRo: “Three Filipinas” by Harrison Geosits
Geosits’s prose spans decades and moves the reader from “bug screens” in the Philippines to “Filet-o-Fish sandwiches” in America.
miCRo: “Epigenetic Inheritance” by Emily Franklin
“Epigenetic Inheritance” explores the stakes and fallout of inherited trauma, how we retain its traces in our cells and pass it down.
miCRo: “Music Indoors” by Adam Gianforcaro
Beyond the pleasure and surprise of such a fresh occasion for poetry, “Music Indoors” makes exemplary use of lush, atmospheric imagery and a slow, lingering pace to cultivate a kind of sun-drenched, Debussy-soundtracked pocket world…
miCRo: “Garden” by Allison Wyss
This juicy work of microfiction feels like the perfect tale to tell in the dark, with a flashlight under your chin.
miCRo: “Like I Won’t Take Something from You” by Sara Moore Wagner
This sensuous, image-rich poem engages with the pleasures of driving down back roads, as it marvels at the passage of time and the body’s relationship to the landscape that shapes it.
miCRo: “Black Life circa 2029” by KB
Managing Editor Lisa Ampleman: This poem starts off deceptively simply, with a description of rooms and circumstances—a clean fridge, “intact” window blinds, and money in the bank.
miCRo: “On Statistics” by Zining Mok
We’re given an alienating, bug-eating premise, placed in an effete literary space and positioned at odds with the whole stiff scene (uncomfortable shoes, Wordsworth’s snobbery, the “man, suited and tied”, etc.). Then, suddenly, we are steeped in a rich, compelling argument about Western exceptionalism…
miCRo: “Also Milk” by Laura Grothaus
How can language be used to express the limits of language? In Laura Grothaus’s “Also Milk,” Luca reveals to the speaker that her mother’s losing language. “She calls everything milk. / Ketchup is milk. Water is milk.”
miCRo: “Classic Length” by Lindsay Reeve
The narrator wants us to look at her hair, at its future length and sheen, but her revelation about an old friend points us to a far darker theme.
miCRo: “Nocturne” by Claire Wahmanholm
In “Nocturne,” Claire Wahmanholm beckons our attention to the lives, both around us and within us, that bloom in darkness.
miCRo: “trusting the birds” by Uma Menon
Something monumental has shifted in the speaker by the poem’s end, but the images and meaning remain ephemeral: “the cloth will make/for good nesting material.”
