“Ornithology,” by Alan Michael Parker, appears in the Winter 2019 Issue of MQR. When a bird flew into my window and made a hard and soft death sound, I found her in the dirt below and I fixed a cardboard nest for her and fed her from an eyedropper what the Internet suggested, and I named […]
“Future Theory,” by Andrew Hemmert, appears in the Winter 2019 Issue of MQR. Now let’s all take a deep breath and start over. Hello, my name is mostly water. My name is I have never known a world other than this one. You too? Maybe you are also dismayed by our inability to quickly travel into
Paisley Rekdal’s poem, “The Structure of Pluto,” appeared in MQR’s Spring 2002 issue. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Whose only moon is Charon, ferryman of the dead who circles death’s king. No cartoon dog this, Pluto brings its own rules to the table: sheets of rock and frozen methane, an icy mantle of ammonia that cloaks in a perfume
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“Negative Capability,” by Yusef Komunyakaa, appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review’s Summer 1999 issue. We bring you this poem from The MQR Archives. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ The honeysuckle vines are certain They’ll be here tomorrow morning, Unhushed scent reaching into next month, As I rest the scythe against a stump To sharpen the curved blade. Their green surety. My
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“An Unfunded Study of the Afterbirth” by Sarah Wolfson, appears in the Winter 2019 Issue of MQR. When it had been seen to that the grayness had receded, that the birthed could breath and suck, that the mother had uptaken several stitches of a fiber as powerful in every sense as
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“Sons of Cain,” by Benjamín Naka-Hasebe Kingsley, appears in the Winter 2019 Issue of MQR. Kentucky sky flints the steel of storm heads blue fields our intentions black I hurl the axe handle all nine years of my elbow into the bowl of my brother’s orbital socket crack & thunder his good eye consumed he screams
“Dear Bear, [True Thrill],” by Ae Hee Lee, appears in the Winter 2019 Issue of MQR. true thrill lies not in hunting but in lying under pear blossoms and watching, while quaking, how a swarm of bees make love to their queen. But there are no pear blossoms left in these ruins. No dark green gloss
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“Trembling on the Skin of a Droplet,” by Emily Pittinos, appears in the Winter 2019 Issue of MQR. Frost softens into steam that spills off the morning, and at the tip of each blade, a diamond quivers. I am as susceptible to beauty as I am any other pain. The pang of clouds dulling, and then
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“Things I Never Give Myself Permission to Say,” by Chelsea Dingman, appears in the Winter 2019 Issue of MQR. It’s fall, & my mother meant to die. Gallons of wine & cartons of cigarettes
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“The Saturday Club,” by Josh Bettinger, appears in the Winter 2019 Issue of MQR. I wanted to tell you but decided against it because the cut of the weekend is real— I did not wash the car I am not on a diet I watched the finale without you but my love runs through the blackened
