Never | Li Yun Alvarado

On the subway, three perfect
poofs frame flushed cheeks.
Lips pucker, sweet as stolen
fruit snacks. I make the rules

printed on purple sleeves.
I can do that! Declare it.
Twirl. Laughter. Applause.
Never is a word you know

well without knowing
it means more than
not right now. As in

we never go back.
We never find answers.
We never stay young.

Li Yun Alvarado is the author of Words or Water. A Nuyorican poet born and bred in the Bronx, Li Yun has lived, learned, and danced in all five boroughs. She now lives and writes in Long Beach, CA, where she and the hubby are raising their freshly baked MexiRican son.
Featured
Ashley P. Taylor | Dinner Theater
Ashley P. Taylor | Dinner Theater

CAST OF CHARACTERS: two women, one young, one old, both lonely. 
THE TENANT, an aspiring writer in her late twenties who is in New York to study journalism. 
THE LANDLADY, a sixty-year-old former actress who teaches aerobics in the city.

Anza Borrego | Michelle Campagna
Anza Borrego | Michelle Campagna

What sublime fuckery
of the redblood ocotillo

Tomorrow, and All the Rest of Them | Mary Barbour
Tomorrow, and All the Rest of Them | Mary Barbour

Sixty-five degrees and bare arms, her and me, on the stoop. Our spot. Listening to the space in between us, as hard as it was to hear. The sun made us squint and I rubbed it into my skin, for later.

Celestogram of Jupiter | Joey de Jesus
Celestogram of Jupiter | Joey de Jesus

dear glacial
supremacy in the north,
dear murmuring

Never | Li Yun Alvarado
Never | Li Yun Alvarado

On the subway, three perfect
poofs frame flushed cheeks.
Lips pucker, sweet as stolen
fruit snacks. I make the rules

Pietà | Tim Gomez
Pietà | Tim Gomez

I point towards the Foothills in the distance, an expanse of grey reaching toward the blue above, painting the sky an envelope yellow. *That must be fire,* I tell you, and move my hand from the shifter to your knee.

*No, no,* you say. *I think it’s just clouds.*

Reading the Creek | Susan Schorn
Reading the Creek | Susan Schorn

But he has a Border Collie’s mind and obsessions; he oscillates with nervous energy and is burdened with a sense of duty that he, being sheepless, can never quite fulfill. The only time he is at peace is when we walk at the creek.

US 131 | William Derks
US 131 | William Derks

Outside and through the passenger window Theresa noticed the last remnants of neighborhoods, places where an occasional garage light disappeared behind a satellite dish, or a vine- covered fence protected houses from the sight of the highway.

Not a Pretension to Godliness | Aditi Rao
Not a Pretension to Godliness | Aditi Rao

In my country, women are allowed
six or eight arms, as many as we need
on a given day.

Jonathan Walsh

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