Joe Pan

“Jennifer stood there, quietly ovulating.”
― Adam Cadre

“I feel for the father, for a feeling of father,
I send out a cry, I am up when I hear my uncle
come through the door of the family house,
with the cherry tree out front, past midnight,
he walks up the stairs, then down the stairs,
and I’m the rock-a-bye baby in his arms.”
― Arisa White, Who's Your Daddy

“I have since betrayed her
with a facility closer to my home
my burden too great to wheel
three extra blocks forsaking
communion for convenience

there I wash and fold with true
toilers nonowners fabric slaves
loveless and rightfully so
we share no confidences
only questions like complaints

my devotion to repetition
precision creases
organized by roy g biv
all underground all unnoticed
my order private
stop asking me to do yours”
― Sheila Maldonado, that's what you get