On Earth
Sunflower Seeds
Ahlaam Moledina At the day’s blunt edge I finally finish replanting the seeds you took from the soil and cracked open with your cracked teeth lost to that bloody trench in your abdomen and reaching into it I curled my hand around each seed like a surly child and while you slept I returned them… Read More Sunflower Seeds
Open Plains
Elena Andrews There is a pang of inescapable fear As I look across the open plains rolling away from me, Far as the eye can almost see, A greyness settling heavy above. It’s a sad fear, a lonely fear, One that doesn’t grip but sits low in my belly because I’m a child again, In… Read More Open Plains
Bleached
Maya Schnake When asked about the inspiration for this piece, Maya said, “I was inspired to create this piece several years ago by the precarious state coral reefs have been in. It’s been a dream of mine to see the great barrier reef in person, but with the constant threat of bleaching, that seems less… Read More Bleached
A Mammoth Lullaby
Devony Hof I watch human hands unearth my bone, Then my tusks, delicate, side by side As they once painted us, marked and dried Running, running, running into stone. Once moving us by the sun’s bright breath Tugged by their hands from very old earth. A frightening, strangely bloodless birth I think I remember a… Read More A Mammoth Lullaby
the things we do not know about the universe
Ginny Ip I want the world. I want to swim in the ocean while it rains and not be afraid of drowning like a discarded piece of plastic dragged along by the waves, suffering until it nearly kills me and then I want to run away from the neon lights of the city and lie… Read More the things we do not know about the universe
The Roots of a Forest
Charlotte M The roots of this forest run deeper than most, They stretch back not only through time, But in hate and in death and in bloodshed A forest was born from a crime. This crime was itself a collection, An assembly of evil and vice, That condemned souls to death by the thousand That… Read More The Roots of a Forest
Alive
Stephanie Ugochi Oguine When asked about the inspiration for this piece, Stephanie said, “It isn’t rare for the earth and the elements to inspire lyrics. I wrote most of the lyrics for ‘Alive’ when I was in high school. I lived in a house that sat in the foothills of northern Los Angeles. My keyboard… Read More Alive
Genealogy
Nia Robles This poem features words in quechua (my indigenous language) and I will attach the translations below: Apus: gods, guardians. In quechua chanka (the dialect of my community) it can also mean mountains Ucumari: spectacled bear. Vulnerable species haunted by Spanish colonizers Illiclla: traditional handmade blanket used in the Andes to carry objects and… Read More Genealogy
