The women sat in a semi-circle around Rena like an unorganized Greek chorus. Chairs of various kinds flanked the bed. ... I went from chair to chair, kissing each woman hello and collecting compliments like candy at Halloween.
—Denise Tolan

The morning hen poop is thick and gooey, and for me, shit sweeping is my daily reminder, as a rabbi advised centuries ago, to carry a paper in one pocket that says: I am but dust and ashes.
—Lisa López Smith

Each year the bones of my ancestors / turn more brittle and gray. / I think how so many must be buried / in the shade of cedar trees. Others, in reeds by the Nile.
—Yasmin Mariam Kloth

Abate. Treat me. Adorn me, / lightly: salt, crimson, /
a quarter of the sky
—Anna Lena Phillips Bell

at what point do I stop looking back / wishing I’d known better?
—Eli Karren

When the interviewer asks if there is any other place you can go, you’ll say no while biting down the excuses your godmother made up for not taking you in.
—Rose Banks

what has our tongue? / what has our tongue that this river don’t?
—Henry Goldkamp