JUST POETRY!!!


the National Poetry Quarterly


JUST POETRY!!! the National Poetry Quarterly



easterday poetry award winner 2020-2021




My Bittersweet Tooth for Burning Canned Worms


I am the hand bursting out from the mushroomed surface of your lawn

The movie screen behind my eyes plays the explosion on repeat

Dying monsters and I roil and writhe beneath dirt, rejecting defeat:

I am the five year old who, buried alive, turned dirt-balls into edible black holes.


Rough ribbons of us appear everywhere I go, still burning my skin to hot ashes

I realize these awful sessions must be evacuation drills of the heart

As subconscious adult firefighters rain down the meaningless crushed ice of apologies

On adolescent lava-born lyricists who unbeknownst to them can't be killed.


I stuff good mornings and good nights in spots from which this love has spilled.

Through the tenebrosity of our conversations I steal 32 tiny nightlights

It always comes back to your inextinguishable smile strewn apart,

To the briny waves of chance drowning the terrified five year old within.


I fear the historic fireworks of emotion in those cherry bomb eyes

And these safety scissors cannot cut your holding hand from mine

Then the sepia being from years ago begins to really squirm

Because it seems like now we’re opening a whole new can of worms.


You’ve been away melting snow caps I would use to seal bottles of scary truths

But maybe the worst truth is you will never be fully extracted from me, nor I from you.

In the end nothing fun nor filthy is untouched by these king-sized feelings

And the horrors I hold for you are ripples in this savory mirror.

Moyinoluwa Blessing Akeju, NJ, Burlington Township High School








"BEST of ISSUE"



FALL 2020-2021




My Bittersweet Tooth for Burning Canned Worms

I am the hand bursting out from the mushroomed surface of your lawn
The movie screen behind my eyes plays the explosion on repeat
Dying monsters and I roil and writhe beneath dirt, rejecting defeat:
I am the five year old who, buried alive, turned dirt-balls into edible black holes.

Rough ribbons of us appear everywhere I go, still burning my skin to hot ashes
I realize these awful sessions must be evacuation drills of the heart
As subconscious adult firefighters rain down the meaningless crushed ice of apologies
On adolescent lava-born lyricists who unbeknownst to them can't be killed.

I stuff good mornings and good nights in spots from which this love has spilled.
Through the tenebrosity of our conversations I steal 32 tiny nightlights
It always comes back to your inextinguishable smile strewn apart,
To the briny waves of chance drowning the terrified five year old within.

I fear the historic fireworks of emotion in those cherry bomb eyes
And these safety scissors cannot cut your holding hand from mine
Then the sepia being from years ago begins to really squirm
Because it seems like now we’re opening a whole new can of worms.

You’ve been away melting snow caps I would use to seal bottles of scary truths
But maybe the worst truth is you will never be fully extracted from me, nor I from you.
In the end nothing fun nor filthy is untouched by these king-sized feelings

And the horrors I hold for you are ripples in this savory mirror.
Moyinoluwa Blessing Akeju, NJ, Burlington Township High School






"EDITOR'S CHOICE"



FALL 2020-2021



Eulogy of Fault


Somewhere, felled bodies will spill

apology as they clatter on the floorboards.


The sun’s gleam burning it all, I have dried

the hourglass crisp. The horizon dims,


then tilts. Clutching a ‘60s movie scene, I stroll

down an endless one-way highway. Crinkles


of half-written promises etched on my tongue,

I only listen for the faintest drifts


of my own repentance. Last summer, I brought

you here under a valley of tainted confessions,


our mouths drowned in charred questions: should I

sing fate into psalms. Will I suppress this dream.


Either way, I will be left sinking into an oasis

shimmering in all our sins. Now, we have returned,


bodies entwined against torchlight,

with no remedy for this fault line. Together, we drain


the flesh of memory, gaze at sorrow coiling

into erasure. My love, only we can wrap a nightmare


flickering in napalm. Come, watch with me:

these arms flailing in the moonlight.

Sophie Zhu, NY, Williamsville East High School









"BEST of ISSUE"



WINTER 2020-2021



on driving through an american city

east on exit 8b, and mile 3 of highway-faded concrete,
carried on s p a c e d, swiftly crumbling pillars [over the neighborhoods they decimated]. | | | / / __ you c-r-e-e-p in

at dusk—and downtown is deserted.
* tycoons hold court only from 9-5.

then, harsh raps on the filthy window and a reeling
man staggers across barkley/4th. “spare a dime, a
quarter?” + begging with clouded eyes, he rounds
the dim corner—and d i s a p p e a r s.

(i think of those huddled tonight, swathed in
thin blankets, shivering below rusted railroad
underpasses that snake out to desolate suburbs.)

onward… past decayed liquor shops, drab asphalt lots.
dark rowhouses punctured by gaping, grassy tracts—
like grotesque rot, these relics of defunct
prosperity, ravaged hulks littered with shards of glass gleaming—scintillating in murky moonlight.

(i think of those fortunate enough to depart, leaving
nestled in warm cars i think of those neglected,
abandoned—to the cruelty of : : unrelenting Time.)

Henry Hsiao, NJ, West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North






"EDITOR'S CHOICE"



WINTER 2020-2021



in light of

you breathe like an accordion, shuddering, your body emptying, because you

hate knowing he’s the sun to your icarus, feel the wax dripping, and

the sensation is a wisp of smoke you won’t find this

way and you’re a moth drawn to this flame, but you know

that you’re also a black hole, the darkness in

smiles submerging all light, and this, you can’t let this go, he

can -will- hurt you but you’ll close your eyes, and you

burn because you know this won’t matter.

Amy Liu, NY, Hunter College High School






"BEST of ISSUE"



SPRING 2020-2021



Fenwick’s Local Shrink

Fierce flames f l u t t e r in onyx skies.​
Scorching embers release scintillating sparks
that dance in the infinity of the galaxy.
Virgo ~WINKS~ as the hopeful glimmers f a l l lifelessly
onto comforting dunes. Their cries expire,
drowned by the MUR/mur of the @tlantic’s
salty spray. The {moon} poised over jet black
waves, illuminates silky streams of surf.

Pursed Lips whispEr tAleS of infidElity

and reveal l o n e l i n e s s. Troubling thoughts

swaddled by pearly grains of sand that listen

but *do not understand.* Calloused hands

create friction and warmth thoughts burning up,

blazing fingers fidgeting, laden with guilt.

$ecrets are lost, swallowed by the swirling tide.

Words tReMbLe and s [L] i n k into the icy depths.


Tor\men/ted souls, tor\men/ted seas blazing embers, burning ?hearts?

Mother Nature hears ignores the c r i e s (with cupped ears.)

Flares sparkle in hazel eyes, “Leo” watches from above

Nature’s therapy: *whispering To THE SEA *

Tony Liberatore, MD, Loyola Blakefield High School ​









"EDITOR'S CHOICE"



SPRING 2020-2021



Yours, Where it Counts


You took that bone-colored abacus, clicking away

with bone-thin hands.‘I need to buy gloves.’

Craving, carving into the snow-filled driveway

you didn't live on.‘They’ll forget it come spring,’

insisting to brush it off, you called it yours

and I asked why you’d want a tool so

weathered. ‘You can always take my calculator.’

But you smiled and declared this was the

best thing you’ve ever collected, the only

thing that you wanted more than gloves

and a bed frame that wasn’t as lonely.

And you stared in wonder at such a small

miracle found in a trashcan at the end of

a driveway across from your part-time job.

I promised that I’d try to buy you gloves,

only for you to laugh and cry and shove me hard

into the snowbank, counting the beads,

calculating the dues, and wishing me dead.

'I'll let you in once you stop wanting me.'

That was the last day I saw you.

Simon Braustein, MD, Richard Montgomery HS






"BEST of ISSUE"



SUMMER 2020-2021



a violated girl is a field after battle


i was so angry, my hair turned red, like the inside of my body.


vietnam. how men love to ruin a nation, then weep in their pension-soft beds for how the killing hurt them. meanwhile, her mountains are pregnant with bombs. unimpressed by the turning decades. meanwhile, my lips are sealed, if only to muffle the crossfire inside.


don’t you know vietnam is too busy living on to make blockbuster films of her pain?


you loved me like,

the boy loves

the lamb

while his father slaughters it, wringing

pity

pity

pity

his heart. but never intervention.


you see. an untilled valley is fertile. an unfelled forest is virgin. nat-ure is a mother. i mean-it is the bodies of women which nourish men.


am i fallow yet?


see here. the bridal veil the molting of my mother. her belly like a taut bow, and I its arrow, the sinew purring away the last of her strength. the way if you point your arms straight to the sky on the top of dong ap bia, you can almost (touch) forget they call it hamburger hill after the six hundred thirty ground up like meat (the) forget where this body has been (stars) forget.

Annika Crawford, PA, George School






"EDITOR'S CHOICE"



SUMMER 2020-2021



Ripped

The kesar ashes lick my face. They corrode past my flesh, a blistered hijack. Dolls surround me, their faces massaged in soil and cow shit. Dark blood, charred dry lips, black faces, asphalt gums. Onion breath

rips my mouth into bloodshot petals. Murmurs cleave past my ear. Nothing exits my bungled lips. Only the static flat line from the ho- spital pierces my heart. Ripping nothing: his soul or his lips. All

singed before me. Flames char his naked bodice. Ravage among the dolls, the village. Melting martyred deities in the nearby shop like the British Raj shrapnel that ripped apart Mama’s Nana. Now

rotting the eucalyptus tree where Mama buried him. My eyes thaw, tarnished yellow not by my loss, but Dada’s toxic ashes & the kesar. Plagued. Taking my first breath in the same smoke Dada rips into.

Reminded of martyred bodies in Chico and Paradise. Slashed by the same fire ripping Dada’s soul from his body. But the dolls remain af-fixed, happily chanting bhajans. Unchanged by his ashes, the torture. In this nation, the dead die and the alive live. No one is dying.
Palak Parikh, CA, Adrian Wilcox High School

Translations: Kesar: saffron Mama: mother
Nana: grandfather on maternal side
Dada: grandfather on paternal side
Bhajan: devotional song with Hindu affiliation often sung at religious ceremonies





all other
"Certified National Winners"



FALL 2020-2021



monsoon season - Jessica Kim, CA, La Canada High School

alter christus - Jaehzel Icareo, TX, Round Rock Early College HS Voyager: The Golden Record - Elizabeth Ahn, TX, Highland Park orange girls - Bella Kim, IL, Adlai E. Stevenson High School

Lines on a Storm-Tossed Wood at Midnight - William Stark, GA, Coram Deo Classical School

Hues of Evanescence - Danae Younge , NC, Durham Academy weakness - Maya Renaud-Levine, NY, Beacon High School

My Name - Chosen For Me, From A Book - Nathan Delisle, MA, Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion School

Things Will Be Okay - Yoko Zhu, GA, Tucker High School

I Cannot, Go On - Edwige Ghembesalu, MD, Montgomery Blair HS

Of Homely States - Chenyi Zhang, AZ, Gilbert Classical Academy

Liminality - Anne Kwok, MA, Milton Academy

cheeking my antiDepressants - Danielle Tran, CA, Dublin HS tempest - Amanda Kay, CA, Santa Clara High School For the Queens Disguised as Witches - Nicole Quynh Huggins, PA, Upper Dublin High School

letters to a wanderer in orbit - Eunice Oh, MD, Quince Orchard HS Lines - Lynn Kong, NC, Cary Christian School

Eyes of the Heart - Annelise Eileraas-Liu, CA, North Hollywood Highly Gifted Magnet School

"Rainy" Mountain - Aarti Bhamidipati, NJ, Princeton High School

Eating the Moon - Clara Szalay, CA, Orange County School of Art

Until Midnight No Longer Stings - Sophie Piedras, NJ, Ridge HS





all other
"Certified National Winners"



Winter 2020-2021



Man, We Chowed on Tsunamis - Edwige Ghembesalu, MD, Montgomery Blair HS

Hills - Benjamin Tchang, PA, Pennsbury High School

Under God - Bria Cox, IA, Johnston High School T

he Vagrant of Athens - Donoven McAllister, CA, Loyola HS L.A. heaven's gate - Trini Rogando, VA, Jefferson HS for Sci &Tech Satan in Satin - Georgia Slavec, MN, Delano High School

Abort - Kristina Pham, TX, Memorial Senior High School

dancing on heavy stones - Kendra Black, WA, Roosevelt HS

Feeling Anxious - Kennedy Suber, MD, North County High School Renascence - Jennifer Chiu, TN, White Station High School Requiem - Drisana Bhatia, CA, Mira Loma High School

Zeus Wept - Vi Pham, TX, Pasadena High School

trainsong - Jacklyn Vandermel, NJ, Northern Valley Reg/ Demarest Dan - Katherine Vandermel, NJ, Bergen County Academies

In Stillness - Eileen Chen, CA, Foothill High School
Mother as Sea Monster in America - Sarah Yang, NJ, Englewood Culminations - Rylee Spencer, AK, A.J. Dimond High School Survivor - Angel Jordan, GA, Augusta Christian Schools

Pompei - Trinity Richardson, FL, First Baptist Academy

The Lack of Summer Shadows - Sompour Wolfe, CT, homeschool





all other
"Certified National Winners"



Spring 2020-2021



when the world is taken - Jacklyn Vandermel, NJ, Northern Valley Regional HS at Demarest

Pulse of Organ - Avalon Felice Lee, CA, Notre Dame High School

A Hungry Beast - Stephen Ramsek, KY, God's Grace Academy

A Postcard From Mumbai - Kanchan Naik , CA, Quarry Lane HS Liminality - Amanda Wu, MD, Richard Montgomery High School my friend the polyglot - Victoria Yang, NY, Hunter College HS Nepenthes - Rachel Xu, FL, Eastside High School

imparting - Avni Rajpal, NY, Riverdale Country School

8.17.19 - Ava Rambo, WA, Tekoa High School

where the sidewalk ends - Naomi Ling, MD, River Hill High School

Harvest - Nikita Bhardwaj, NJ, Princeton Day School

elegy of a writer - Trini Rogando, VA, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology

autoplasty - Maggie Sun, CA, Arcadia High School

i own a small store - Nathan Zhao, DE, Charter School/Wilmington

teen idol - Alisha Tan, GA, Johns Creek High School

Grief Exponent - Annie Wu, IL, Walter Payton College Prep

suicide by starvation - Annie Zhang, VA, Woodgrove High School

The Spinning Moments - Tia Vasadeva, IL, Stevenson High

Vollman's Uprising - Marcel Borg, NC, Enloe High School

Induction - Elaine Kim, CA, Homeschool





all other
"Certified National Winners"



Summer 2020-2021



still life: quarantine - Olivia Yang, NC, Phillips Academy
Kokura, 1945 - Anais Lee, NJ, Academies at Englewood
Qingsong Children - Katherine Xu, OH, Dublin Jerome HS
sanguine - Olivia Smith, UT, Providence Hall High School
Valium in Vegas - Alyssa Fair, FL, Tampa Prep
Palette of Those Days - Paris Fluker, MI, Kalamazoo Central
Ship's Hull Sweet Lull - Eileen Kwan, NJ Middlesex County Academy for Allied Health and Biomedical Sciences
Bloom v- Hope Dimick, KS, Washburn Rural High School
No Resistance - Soo Yeon Chun, MA, Deerfield Academy
fractals - Kenneth Su, AZ, Hamilton High School

Words I Thought Careless: - Iris Barrera, CA, South Pasadena Medusa's Living Room - Jessica Huang, IL, Phillips Exeter Acdy Don't Ask - Harrison West, TX, Trinity Classical School Manipulated Euphoria - Viera Pulver, NJ, Oak Knoll School

of the Holy Child
Amid the Lights - Jenna Myers, PA, Wilson High School
My Palm is a Cup - Grey Weatherford-Brown, PA, Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts
Love Sonnet of Earth and Sky - Trini Rogando, VA, Thomas Jefferson HS for Science and Technology
Rain and the Funeral - Nino Sikharulidze, NY, Brooklyn Technical freeze-dried summer street - Audrey Sioeng, CA, Arcadia HS starvation/salvation - Aruna Sreenivasan, AZ, BASIS Phoenix
un-heavy - Cadie Loftus, NJ, Shawnee High School
Matchstick Teeth - Jacklyn Vandermel, NJ, Northern Valley Regional High School at Demarest



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