Julia Wendell 8/5/25 Julia Wendell 8/5/25

Spirit Animal

“I open the door. / ‘May as well come in,’ I say, / charmed by the chestnut bird / he’s brought me.”

Yelena Moskovich 8/5/25 Yelena Moskovich 8/5/25

COLD

“Cold. / The gull mouths iron, / called / the coat’s curl liar.”

Rishi Janakiraman 8/5/25 Rishi Janakiraman 8/5/25

“To continue to speak long after catastrophe is to risk language becoming its own kind of heresy.”

Rishi Janakiraman 8/5/25 Rishi Janakiraman 8/5/25

“FREELAND’s authority is its refusal to sentimentalize the things we normally reach for when poetry fails—love, memory, justice.”

Amarys Dejai 8/5/25 Amarys Dejai 8/5/25

“We are here, our experiences matter.”

Javeria Hasnain 8/5/25 Javeria Hasnain 8/5/25

“o my opium! / tender thrush.”