Author: Qu Literary Magazine

That moment before grief destroys us, We sit eating the sweetest melon, Not knowing the sweetness until Much later, when the first grade Is empty-eyed, everyone Alone now as we are overtaken Without knowing it yet, Thinking this cannot be … [Click here to purchase a copy of the magazine]

Before you opened the bag, Sex could’ve been something sleek, a jaguar or puma, but it turned out to be a scraggly orange cat who leaves messes and claws at strangers and yowls for attention all through the night. Spend enough time with Sex and you no longer hope it’ll fix anything; it’s just another…

36 feet of earth risen from the ground. Sometimes the earth itself raises a hand in prayer. Sand spilling down its face, the hill across the blacktop from our cheap apartment sang invitation. Sang freedom. So we ran, clambered up its almost impossible angle until we stood perched atop a lip of dirt as thin…

I want to find the porch of the poem. I think if I could just stand there with one fist pressed hard against the ache at the base of my spine, if I could stare off toward the sea of neighboring mountaintops whose clouds threaten to make common cause with my own darknesses – then…

my child, you will ascend water. it doesn’t matter what your feet and bones are made of. let go of the happy bullshit and do the worm through this life. at your best, you are a comical and clumsy creature— and it is a mechanism of beauty. you have permission to do what you can…

Little by little, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge gives itself back to ocean storms; c o n c r e t e and s t e e l dust blue crabs and oysters in the depths; some people pay to be driven                    across, shudder in their own…

wake into your body s’ soft ache   watch as the day unhinges its jaw   promises to devour this quiet want   how quickly the light empties   how small the animal’s cage   can you see the darkness gathering   a murmuration of arrows overhead