RogueAgent

“If my daughter or sister engaged in pre-marital activities and disgraced herself,
and allowed herself to lose face and character by doing such things, 
I would most certainly take this sort of sister or daughter
 to my farmhouse, and in front of my entire family,
 I would put petrol on her and set her alight.”
— Attorney AP Singh in defense of those
 who gang raped and murdered
 Jyoti Singh

A woman is the black earth of your fields—you shred         
          wildflowers and weeds, burn left over straw
to control pests and disease.

She is what you proudly fence off with bamboo sticks,                   
          where you let your crops bloom, where you may watch
the summer heat and rain

merge and flow into brown puddles that look as comforting
          as the lukewarm tea you sip silently from your stainless
steel cup. A woman is hard earth you meticulously

plow in clockwise circles with various clod sizes,
          carve out ridges, bring insides to the outside, and flood it
till it’s soft and ready for replanting again.

She is black earth that still remains in the rim
          of your hands after you washed them clean
at the end of a hard day’s work.        

Now you will dig into each fingernail,           
          and use other fingernails
to scrape her out.

Margaret Yapp

FIRST WINTER IN MINNESOTA
 

what the sky shows us
dark by five now
what the feeling of that
warning that sorry that whatever

you need it to be over
this new winter

what the fast drive home from work
what the talk and fast cry to yourself over
and over learn not to care
if anyone sees fast loud
what the windows
down in the freezing

what the fast drive with three helicopters

what the lots of water and coffee
big metal tins of hot food

what the figure out how
to bring hot drinks to
big groups of people
mourning death
because that is all you can do

what the death

what the funeral
what the funerals
what the every day feels
like a funeral
 

what the fear
fear fear fear over fear
what the I am sorry
I am so sorry
I am so so
sorry 

Elizabeth Davidson

THE HEART OF A WOMAN WEIGHS EIGHT OUNCES
 

I stand in front of a canvas,
cast a distorted shadow,
draw myself in segments—
counting freckles in spilling
change from suns past
their zenith, copper asphalt
broken by a soft shift of aging
sheet—I save the heart
for last. Sketch it
between undefined breasts,
paint it the color of brick houses,
tie it to the torso with arteries
like fibrous roots tangled in clay.

Farryl Last

EARTHQUAKE 62 A.D.
 

The first time we were happy.

Children, really; winter birds
took refuge in the ilex.

There were signs: my mother’s garden
grew well.

Memory of a waterlogged moon, of
body stringent in metallic dark.

Don’t pretend there weren’t.
Berries soft-skinned on the dirt;
there were signs:

Memory of rebuilding.
Labor of rebuilding.
The body’s loneliness.

To think, the earth is sleeping.
The violets wild in their fields.

Issue 21 Contributors

Ashwini Bhasi lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan and writes poems to make sense of the mind-body connection of trauma and chronic pain, life in India, and the duality of her experiences as a genomic data analyst and poet. Her work has appeared in The Feminist Wire, DriftwoodPress, Eunoia Review, and Cyclamens and Swords. A poem she wrote in response to the 2016 presidential election recently won the Yellow Chair Review’s Rock the Chair challenge. 

Ace Boggess is the author of two books of poetry: The Prisoners (Brick Road Poetry Press, 2014) and The Beautiful Girl Whose Wish Was Not Fulfilled (Highwire Press, 2003). Forthcoming are his novel, A Song Without a Melody (Hyperborea Publishing), and a third poetry collection, Ultra-Deep Field (Brick Road). His writing has appeared in Harvard Review, Mid-American Review, RATTLE, River Styx, and many other journals. He lives in Charleston, West Virginia. 

McKenzie Chinn lives in Chicago and has performed her poetry as part of the city’s long-running, curated show-case Salonathon and in The Inconvenience’s The Fly Honey Show. Her work has appeared in Voicemail Poems. She also wrote, produced, and appears in the independent feature film Olympia, currently in post-production.

Elizabeth Davidson currently resides in southern Ohio and is an MFA candidate at Lindenwood University. Her work has most recently appeared in Vagabond City, Apeiron Review, By&By Poetry, and Tamsen. 

Carlos Franco-Ruiz (°1987, Managua, Nicaragua) is an artist who mainly works with painting. He graduated with his Bachelors in Fine Art from the University of Miami. In 2013, he moved to Uruguay and continues to follow his passion for painting where he recently had a group exhibition "La Mirada del otro" at Museo Del Azulejo to showcase his latest body of work. Currently lives and works in Sauce, Uruguay.  

Farryl Last is a 2015 MFA graduate from Hunter College. She has developed and taught undergraduate courses and works in the field of study abroad. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in The Maine Review, Entropy, HOUND, Hermeneutic Chaos, Word Riot, and Glass: A Journal of Poetry, among others. She once lived in Mantua, Italy, and taught English there. Follow her on Twitter @FarrylLast.

Courtney Leigh is The Bowhunter of White Stag Publishing. Her chapbook the unrequited <3<3 of red riding hood & her lycan lover waspublished by Dancing Girl Press, & her poems were most recently published in Alyss Lit, Hermeneutic Chaos & are forthcoming in Menacing Hedge & Yellow Chair Review.

Melisa Malvin-Middleton is a Los Angeles poet, playwright, and musician who teaches writing at California State University, Northridge and College of the Canyons. Her poetry has appeared in Silver Birch Press, The Ofi Press, and Clear Poetry among others, while her plays have been performed by Fresh Produce’d and Savage Players. In 2017, her chapbook Hover the Bones (Yak Press) will be released. For more information visit: www.melisamalvin.com.

Tanaka Mhishi is a poet, playwright and performer. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Words Dance, Black Heart Magazine and the Rialto among other publications, and on stage at various venues in London and the southeast of England. Much of his work wrestles with trauma; most of the time it wins. For more details visit tanakamhishi.co.uk. 

Krista Sarraf holds a Master’s in English from James Madison University and teaches writing at University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg and Seton Hill University. She is the founding director of the youth literacy nonprofit Write Local and editor of the organization’s literary magazine, Voices. She lives in Latrobe, Pennsylvania with her husband.  

Margaret Yapp is a nasty woman from Iowa. She currently lives and works in Minneapolis. Her poems and essays have appeared in TheTishman Review, Midwestern Gothic, Driftward Press, and elsewhere.