miCRo: “The Maternal Instinct of Snakes” by Michelle Ross
In “The Maternal Instinct of Snakes,” Michelle Ross metes out just enough information, just in time, from an expertly chosen point-of-view, to complicate the reader’s allegiances.
miCRo: “Stranger” by Chris Watkins
In this ghazal, Chris Watkins skillfully crafts a narrative about a religious family and a speaker who sees things differently.
miCRo: “Motherlode” by Therese Gleason
Gleason invites us inside the psyche of a young speaker grappling with their father’s absence.
miCRo: Two Pieces by Jeremy Paden
& zhe answered, yes, the certain are so very much like tractor trailers
barreling down a mountain speedway
miCRo: “Story of a Breath” by Ryan Griffith
Are the stories that we tell about objects, and the quests for those stories, more important than the objects, themselves? In “Story of a Breath” one object’s history is perfectly encapsulated—and forever inaccessible.
miCRo: “A Boy Lies Face Down” by Dmitry Blizniuk, translated by Sergey Gerasimov
This poem expands the vocabulary of war writing with its stunning breadth of images.
miCRo: “The Mint and the Bees” by Joel Long
Joel Long’s flash nonfiction piece “The Mint and the Bees” meditates on the crucial interdependence between pollinator and flower.
miCRo: “Fried Rice” by Tina S. Zhu
Don’t let the ghosts take your names, Ba said over the hiss of the wok harmonizing with the ghosts. Don’t let them steal your spirits.
miCRo: “Lighthouse” by Kenneth Tanemura
In “Lighthouse,” work is inextricably linked to place: a place to which the speaker is a newcomer, with no ties to bind them to the landscape.
miCRo: “Ledge (ars poetica) (love poem) (true story)” by Amorak Huey
A prose poem with nearly breathless syntax and a subtle build of rhetoric.
miCRo: “Green Line” by Chen Poyu, translated by Nicholas Wong
Former contributor Nicholas Wong masterfully translates Chen Poyu’s haunting poem.
miCRo: “The Salesmen” by Matt Barrett
Matt Barrett’s story about knife sellers begins with a book being cut down the spine and builds to a meditation on the weight and heft of words.
