Iced Out Hell
All humans have the right to magic, brujas y brujos. The spells important in the late night fadings of consciousness, trying to go to sleep by taking the position of a sleeping body. The theme of the class is Trouble. I’ve been in it, I’ve tried to get into it. The waitlist was too long. In the night, in a… Read more →
Power
I’ll tell you the best Bible story. My version is Best but you can check the original if you want. So Jesus is getting pretty big at this point; he’s really blowing up. Folks are following him and he’s marching on, disciples are striding and streaking next to him; you know Jesus always rides twelve people deep. This woman sees… Read more →
Bartending School
I worked at the Speedway in Orlando, a race car themed restaurant. Blue Sunoco leaded gasoline pumps on either side of the entrance. A Red Lion Gilmore pump by the restrooms. Motor oil drums transformed into gleaming seats in the cocktail lounge. Sheet metal walls with wavy images of a Bluebird V, a Stanley Steamer. Race car drivers in caps,… Read more →
driving lessons
I preach labor exploitation in the name of Christto my mom as I tell her about the youth group service trip I just finishedand she says, try being a stay at home motheras I sit next to herlike an uncashed check. I’m driving through smokefrom fires three time zones away and,if a tree falls in the forest and you find… Read more →
My Sister Says There Are Parts I’m Not Remembering
In the nonhuman future, particles of plastic pulverized by the North Pacific Garbage Gyre work their way through scales of fish. Stars flare through their life cycles without faces. How badly I want them to have faces. My tombstone could be a horse’s heart as it beats, quilt of blood, swift to the furthest reaches, warming the nostrils, the tender… Read more →
Interview with Claire Wahmanholm about Meltwater (Milkweed, 2023), nominated for a Minnesota Book Award in Poetry
PAIGE RIEHL: Thank you, Claire, for speaking with me about your fourth book of poetry, Meltwater, a Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award Finalist and a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award in poetry. Congratulations! I am so drawn to this collection for numerous reasons, one of which is the way you illustrate the complexities of existing as a person amid an ongoing… Read more →
Before
Yellow leaves clung to the branches of bony trees. In the back of the police cruiser, my wrists werered from handcuffs. Raw red like roses, strawberries. The cops found me hanging upside downfrom the apartment building’s balcony by my ankles, caught in the railing. Had to use the cherrypicker to get me down. I was naked, warm. They made me… Read more →