This selection, chosen by Guest Editor t.r. san, is from Honeymoon Shoes by Valyntina Grenier (Cathexis Northwest Press 2023).
Rub a Raw Slice Down the Middle or Modern Plants
My porch the limbo back when young leaves botched the ordinary harvest to garden the
modified genetic why perfect the flame under blown out and understood suddenly to opt
for the choice given a big bowl of home no doubt to tell them all of course we’re
counting
on neighbors with Cheerios will ask made me smile well ask gave me fear Perfectly safe
at the picnic though this obvious chance of water supper a beach invitation still the
fireworks splay the way we work the middle slice up a raw cleave sticking keeping me
that is
methodically untouched Thanking vacation the porch remained New leaves summer
weeks late would you want let me ask Was there I press before a destination to select
before a hint of the effect a new kiss gleans the same not simply
strong phenomenon of substantial equivalence that the asterisk pointed to as safe proof
we could offer critique of a molecular avarice with tests/ scientists a safe potato has one
machine metaphor bugs with evidently to kill to eat together
at The Best Bureaucratic-pestilence-wonderland a bit like the jurisdiction of eyes least/
lash/ regard Turned out freedom always assumed safety has been voluntary when the
regulation /religion /surgeon of modified facts operates on me
Valyntina Grenier (she/her) is a multi-genre artist living in Eugene, Oregon. She is the author of four chapbooks and one full length collection. You can find those books at Bottlecap Press, Finishing Line Press, Cathexis Northwest Press and various places where books are sold. Her latest poems and visual art can be found in Beyond Words Magazine, Beyond Queer Words, Cathexis, Querencia and Wild Roof Journal. You can find her, her visual art, and links to her work around the web at valyntinagrenier.com.
t.r. san is a poet and translator currently based on Gadigal land, with recent work found in minor literature[s], The Cincinnati Review, HAD, Smokelong Quarterly, The Offing, &c. read & reach @thoushallkill on Twitter, or trsan.neocities.org. 
