Today my country / is a centipede prayer / to lesser divinities /
on the 5 / train / in windowed halls / all the fascists were smiling / in glistening
cars / on streets / where my brother / and I / boasted / of the bodies we /
had yet to love / they were smiling / so goddamn proud / today
I read Haggadah / with folded napkins / called every / friend in Brooklyn /
found / my father’s favorite / in a local bakery / today /
I did not think / about dying / the sun held / itself
with the beauty / of all that / continues / to rise /
there were quarters enough / for laundry / today
the hangover passed / the tumor / in my aunt’s chest / shrunk /
every friend in / Brooklyn answered / today
I am loved / by a woman who / gathers headphones / in green
sheets / who grows / paper flowers by the kitchen door / today
a hawk flew past / my mother / ’s open hand /
did you know / God / mourns / all the drowned / even the fascists /
we make / our small truce / with this world / in feathers
and marzipan / in scripture / or pastries warmly / broken /
across unwashed shirts / the petulant geography /
of this / bedroom floor.

Zachariah Claypole White is a Philadelphia-based writer and educator, originally from North Carolina. He holds a BA from Oberlin College and an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. His poetry and prose have appeared in, or are forthcoming from, Bourbon Penn, The Baltimore Review, and The Hong Kong Review, amongst others. Zachariah has received support from the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop and his awards include Flying South's 2021 Best in Category for poetry as well as nominations for a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Zachariah teaches at the Community College of Philadelphia and the Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College.

Lucas Blalock (b. 1978 Asheville, North Carolina) is a primarily photographic artist based in New York. Inspired by Bertolt Brecht’s emphasis on the work behind a production as a part of theater, Blalock’s art reveals the methodologies behind photography. He focuses primarily on digital alteration in Photoshop, and creates “darkly comic photographs that probe discomfiting corners of the psyche while making a bawdy mess of staid photographic norms.” He is drawn to “objects that have something pathetic about them,” and finds these objects in places that are often ignored, like discarded on the street or in discount stores.