CONTRAPASSO
︎︎︎ Carson Jordan
︎ June 5, 2025
I gorged myself on four lilies
to absorb a lesson
coincidence should spare crazy people
The rise and fall of the stay at home girlfriend
calling be good to a chorus that says be bad back
How could anything be so soulful
I was the wolf with the drooling tongue
desperate to hunt something and drop it on your doorstep
undertaking a wish as a device
dancing at the threshold
coincidence should have spared me
dignityless like a deer at the pool
my father is just a crazy girl
a product of the year of Texas
an insane woman dressed in deadman’s clothing
coincidence is a bad host
canary in a mine, blonde in a mustang
the underside of an iceberg
it is supposed to be fun
there is neutrality in miracles
days when foundation won’t blend
I desire to be buried under a hard heavy stone
and am learning that orchids are parasites that devour their host plant
Such is life
to absorb a lesson
coincidence should spare crazy people
The rise and fall of the stay at home girlfriend
calling be good to a chorus that says be bad back
How could anything be so soulful
I was the wolf with the drooling tongue
desperate to hunt something and drop it on your doorstep
undertaking a wish as a device
dancing at the threshold
coincidence should have spared me
dignityless like a deer at the pool
my father is just a crazy girl
a product of the year of Texas
an insane woman dressed in deadman’s clothing
coincidence is a bad host
canary in a mine, blonde in a mustang
the underside of an iceberg
it is supposed to be fun
there is neutrality in miracles
days when foundation won’t blend
I desire to be buried under a hard heavy stone
and am learning that orchids are parasites that devour their host plant
Such is life
Carson Jordan is a poet and the teacher of MIND PALACE POETRY, the workshop that makes your poetry better through the power of gossip. Her debut chapbook, GOOD FOR HER, came out with Dirt Child Press in 2022.
48 hours W/O Venlafaxine
︎︎︎ Jiv Johnson
︎ June 3, 2025
Thinking of Venlafaxine; thinking of the Tripartite Pact; thinking of the years in which there was a global pandemic; thinking of various thought crimes; thinking of dodging some folks that aren’t looking for me; thinking of the long line at the weed dispensary in Cincinnati, Ohio; thinking of photophobia; thinking of optic nerve and retina hyperactivity beneath the smart-lighting systems now-popular in American retail; thinking of Forever 21; thinking of the song “Seventeen Going Under”; thinking of geometric, bright pendant lights; thinking of eye strain; thinking of an electric lineman pointing down at big text ALWAYS TEST YOUR GLOVES! and cut-away to insulated rubber gloves gripping a live, 10,000 volt running wire; thinking of relapsing into drinking—actually, no; thinking of quitting Venlafaxine; thinking of pinball machines; thinking of [all-caps] D R U G S; thinking of Jung’s work on synchronicity; thinking of synchronicity; thinking of how, at one point, all myths were commonly accepted as factual; thinking of Mikey Miles, the actor and artist, and his forever-enduring, forever-happening mythology on Instagram; thinking of invoicing clients for work performed and completed months ago; thinking of thinking; thinking of old poems; thinking of the word ‘old’; thinking of Venlafaxine; thinking of how I shouldn’t ever think of the pleroma; thinking of Rachel, whom history and theology have had seemingly little interest in; thinking of how, the Biblical Tragedy named Rachel passed on, in-transit, on a road outside Bethlehem, giving birth to the last child of Jacob, his only son to be born inside the boundary of Canaan–the promised land; thinking of Benjamin, the son who killed Rachel, in vivo, on a road outside Bethlehem; thinking of destiny; thinking of the stray Maine Coon we’ve taken on as an outside pet, which litters the sunroom and garden with mutilated corpses of lizards; thinking of the worms; thinking of an upside down Toyota Corolla and Ford Fusion; thinking of the fraught sense my voice must exhibit, on the phone with my psychiatrist, begging for an emergency fill of Venlafaxine; thinking of Venlafaxine; thinking of the years through my life in which I did not know love; thinking of the years in love in which I did not know anything; thinking of how assets always equal the sum of liabilities and equity; thinking of personal income statements; thinking of the flow in which a claim instigated by a policy holder travels through near-endless operating processes until an actuary finally factors it into a loss triangle; thinking of Tyler Childers’ rise to country stardom; thinking of Lawrence County, Kentucky; thinking of Louisa, Kentucky, where I’d once driven, to see the T-Shaped Bridge that connects two different parts of Kentucky with West Virginia; thinking of a recent study published in the NYT indicating the long-tail death of the semicolon in American writing; thinking of Rachel and Venlafaxine; thinking of Tylenol; thinking of County Tyrol, in Austria; thinking of the phrase, I came across, which said refugees from the Tyrolean Winter gathered with great frequency… leading to my need to look up Tyrol; thinking of refugees and asylum claims; thinking of genocide in the 21st century; thinking of the lost Exegetica of Basilides; thinking of what Basilides called “The Reign of Gospel”, an age beginning with Jesus Christ’ teachings becoming popularized; thinking of how Basilides was fatalistic concerning martyrdom and metempsychosis, how suffering a la persecution by the Roman state of early Christians was not due to their Christianity but because of sins they had committed in past instances of existence; thinking of how the generation of a World Seed on Minecraft is effectively the same as what both Basilides and Valentinus thought happened at the moment of creation; thinking of how all my time spent reading doesn’t create more time for me to exist; thinking of how drugs are the only ‘thing’ I’ve found to extend time spent existing (figuratively); thinking of Venlafaxine; thinking of how I’ve propped thinkers who believe, quite literally, in Genesis via Minecraft World Seed Generation, onto a high pedestal of knowledge; thinking of checking in to a mental hospital; thinking of missed bill payments; thinking of mortgage payments; thinking of the mold-spotted napkin sitting at the bottom of my Ford Fusion’s driver-side cup-holder, which has sat there, existing in it’s own decay, for an amount of time which is multiple years longer than the total length of the most recent global pandemic; thinking of the length of time things can last unnoticed when one isn’t forced to look at them; thinking of Venlafaxine, the anti-depressant classified as a serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI), which I’ve taken at a maximum doseage for around nine years, until beginning to decrease doses, just recently; thinking of Rachel dying in-transit giving birth to Benjamin; thinking of Benjamin, whose original name, Ben-oni, meant Son of Sorrow, rising through history to create a small yet important tribe of Israel which included the likes of King Saul, first leader of Israel, and the Apostle Paul, the second most important Christian figure besides Christ himself; thinking of a fracture or wound in the body, becoming beloved if given enough time; thinking of my body; thinking of scarring around tissue; thinking of Venlafaxine
Jiv Johnson is an accountant from Kentucky. He currently resides in Cincinnati.
Also by Jiv: Intuit QuickBooks Online Notification
Also by Jiv: Intuit QuickBooks Online Notification
—
︎︎︎ Céline Mathieu
︎ June 2, 2025
I’m a little line of yellow
next to your long line of blue
next to your long line of blue
Céline Mathieu is an artist and writer.
FIRE OF MY HONOR
︎︎︎ Haley Alani Rain Wood
︎ June 1, 2025
when the alchemy is so deep
you are just left
there breaking
open
the incorrect judgement
of the strength
of a translucent wing
all of it was for this moment
stone held by an angel
the frequency of force
is lightning
the weight of a heart
caves of iron glistening
caught stars
swords at the gates
wrapped in silk
gossamer of tissues
initiation as electric surrender
knowing your hips move
the same way
the voice that echos in our scars
angel wisdom and prophetic data
only way truth speaks
will for ever be enough
certain facets are direct clarity
praying in the lightning
there we are
beaming
the structure of a prayer
you are just left
there breaking
open
the incorrect judgement
of the strength
of a translucent wing
all of it was for this moment
stone held by an angel
the frequency of force
is lightning
the weight of a heart
caves of iron glistening
caught stars
swords at the gates
wrapped in silk
gossamer of tissues
initiation as electric surrender
knowing your hips move
the same way
the voice that echos in our scars
angel wisdom and prophetic data
only way truth speaks
will for ever be enough
certain facets are direct clarity
praying in the lightning
there we are
beaming
the structure of a prayer
ZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA
︎︎︎ Tazha Chen
︎ May 31, 2025
Life is a missed stair
A Defibrillator to your chest
I used to forget the alphabet when I was a kid
And lie my way out of humiliation
Three days into jury duty and I think I could be an assistant district attorney
Just check that I'm responsive every now and then, that my heart is beating And if not, push the
electrodes deeper into my sternum and kiss my mouth,
Read me the letters backwards so I forget even worse
and tell the jury they can be dismissed early,
Let them go home,
With respect to my mortality,
They don't know a thing
A Defibrillator to your chest
I used to forget the alphabet when I was a kid
And lie my way out of humiliation
Three days into jury duty and I think I could be an assistant district attorney
Just check that I'm responsive every now and then, that my heart is beating And if not, push the
electrodes deeper into my sternum and kiss my mouth,
Read me the letters backwards so I forget even worse
and tell the jury they can be dismissed early,
Let them go home,
With respect to my mortality,
They don't know a thing