Coventry Street, Detroit

by Petra Kuppers

(The black mold fungus Stachybotrys chartarum was originally discovered on the wall of a house in Prague in 1837. The average person inhales at least 40 conidia (fungus …

I Shamed the Valleys That Wanted To Eat Me

by Chinua Ezenwa-Ohaeto

I don’t want to wait till the moment of my dying
to realize what I have ignored all my life.
I want you to climb me. Climb me because I …

Cityscape With Dysthymia

Despy Boutris Wins a 2023 Zócalo Poetry Prize Honorable Mention Award

by Despy Boutris

Every year, we award the annual Zócalo Poetry Prize to the poem that best evokes a connection to place. Zócalo is pleased to recognize …

Trying to Explain What Knafeh Is

Andrew Calis Wins a 2023 Zócalo Poetry Prize Honorable Mention Award

by Andrew Calis

Every year, we award the annual Zócalo Poetry Prize to the poem that best evokes a connection to place. Zócalo is pleased to recognize …

We were born

Eleanor Stanford Wins a 2023 Zócalo Poetry Prize Honorable Mention Award

by Eleanor Stanford

Every year, we award the annual Zócalo Poetry Prize to the poem that best evokes a connection to place. Zócalo is pleased to recognize …

As the Fog Starts Burning Away

Brent Ameneyro Wins a 2023 Zócalo Poetry Prize Honorable Mention Award

by Brent Ameneyro

Every year, we award the annual Zócalo Poetry Prize to the poem that best evokes a connection to place. Zócalo is pleased to recognize …

a god

by Nidaa Khoury, translated by Lily Shehady

Once there was a god who opened his mouth,
parted his forehead and widened his lips
the whole world opened. The upper lip was the horizon,
and the waterline, walking …

The Death of Noah

by Yoni Hammer-Kossoy

Grace After Meals

by Maya Tevet Dayan, translated by Jane Medved

My father stands over the pots
in my house, baking sweet potatoes,
giving me back the taste
of a world where mothers still exist.

His hands slice thin answers
to my …

Kanafeh

by Iman Jaml Arbasy

I am alone, sitting in a restaurant in Jerusalem.
I order a Kanafeh for me and my friend—
who never arrives. The waiter makes a noise when
he puts the …

1. Opening, from The Burden of Nisan

by Shimon Adaf, translated by Becka Mara McKay

The poem carried her
through time

she lay reading on the balcony
on a sun-wombed border

a chrysanthemum ignited
the garden’s actuality
a well of gravity

birdsong harpooned the air

even her mother was …

Middle School

by Oak Morse

 

They’ve gotten my classes     crisscrossed

   sulking here     swallowing the wrong,

      compacted in       the regular classroom.

I belong

   in a seat that calls my name

           not here      in …