is it strange that sisters are so distant
what is spoken of a lover he remembered
your name long after he forgot his
own       escape to state where sweet
jane plays and oily fish slides down
my throat        negating the sensation
of hunger        we do a lot of name play
where they learn me through disrupting
rhythm here       in my house where no
one could be said to dwell i introduce
myself only to my captors when they
change my designation otherwise hail no
one knowing no neighbor who greets me
making me in that instant and after      a
living image thus plucked from bare life
and set in mental constellation        all
my stories have gone viral then been lost
forgotten suppressed discarded erased 18
redacted cut up written over        in your
mind’s sky dear ones dear ones do you
remember one story in which i take part
several variants recorded in asia minor
alone heroes get a story goddesses and
gods what do i get        the fact of being
lost in a fantasy        techniques to keep
me this side of catatonia

—

This selection comes from Zoe Tuck’s book of poetry Terror Matrix, available from Timeless, Infinite Light! Purchase your copy here!

Zoe Tuck was born in Texas, where she first encountered two of her great loves: poetry and breakfast tacos. Since relocating to the Bay Area in 2008, she has been an active member of the local literary community, working for several years at Small Press Distribution and co-curating Condensery Reading Series. Her book, Terror Matrix (2014) is available from Timeless, Infinite Light. Some of her recent work can be found in Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry, as well as online in issue 18 of textsound and issue 15 of dusie. She is also a poetry reader forHOLD: a journal, a monthly blogger at Michigan Quarterly Review, and an occasional book reviewer at the Volta blog. She is currently at work on a manuscript of tarot poems called Summer Arcana. Find her at zoetuck.com or on twitter @oh_that_zoe.

Darren C. Demaree is the author of three poetry collections, As We Refer to Our Bodies (2013, 8th House), Temporary Champions (2014, Main Street Rag), and Not For Art For Prayer (2015, 8th House). He is the recipient of three Pushcart Prize nominations and a Best of the Net nomination. He is also a founding editor of Ovenbird Poetry and AltOhio. He is currently living in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and children.

wherein i admit here that some violence
or other prejudice that burbles up at the
edges of my living      is of another order
than the story i’ve inscribed here on this
character of self      who am i and who
am i to speak and who am i to speak for
whom    emplacement first weaponry then
positioning of more neutral character but
having read from definition 1 to 2 the
meaning stuff of 1 clung and lingered
as i moved through 2       bombardier
just as i moved from male to female or
maybe something other      something of
the initial imposition clung and wafted
around and alongside me       assent to
come into this 3x6x7 room predicated on
the unstated idea of safeguarding my self
and world     subversion of my project by 16
act of retaining isthmus to the worldself
system       not unmade a safeword for a
safe poetic exercise in s&m

—

This selection comes from Zoe Tuck’s book of poetry Terror Matrix, available from Timeless, Infinite Light! Purchase your copy here!

Zoe Tuck was born in Texas, where she first encountered two of her great loves: poetry and breakfast tacos. Since relocating to the Bay Area in 2008, she has been an active member of the local literary community, working for several years at Small Press Distribution and co-curating Condensery Reading Series. Her book, Terror Matrix (2014) is available from Timeless, Infinite Light. Some of her recent work can be found in Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry, as well as online in issue 18 of textsound and issue 15 of dusie. She is also a poetry reader forHOLD: a journal, a monthly blogger at Michigan Quarterly Review, and an occasional book reviewer at the Volta blog. She is currently at work on a manuscript of tarot poems called Summer Arcana. Find her at zoetuck.com or on twitter @oh_that_zoe.

Darren C. Demaree is the author of three poetry collections, As We Refer to Our Bodies (2013, 8th House), Temporary Champions (2014, Main Street Rag), and Not For Art For Prayer (2015, 8th House). He is the recipient of three Pushcart Prize nominations and a Best of the Net nomination. He is also a founding editor of Ovenbird Poetry and AltOhio. He is currently living in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and children.

where the path we’ve chosen takes a
shape     a common practice enclosed
in systematic speech     where a bogey
crashed or grew up strong     causes you
to shake from fear     the same team
the same air     to sit by the judge and
look through time and space     like a
suitor or a hunter     when’d you land
here      where we were forced first to
gather then disperse      or chose to flex
and zoom around the city a unit since
partitioned     fought what power a plaque
was later bolted in discreetly     to honor
and obstruct a learned behavior      if
i try the knob it doesn’t move      the
lockedness of the door’s affirmed if move
then pull and hope i will make the hall
though the doctor’s henchmen beat me 14
down but if knob turns but door still
sticks      i’ll ululate or gasp in horror
got locked up in an idealism blood and
money story      there were no pennies
on the dusty floor      i put some from my
pocket in the trash so if they checked
there’d be some      this wasn’t my first
lesson in unworlding      the doctor’s
henchmen checked the trash bag for him
the doctor gave me one slice of cake on
the face for each of them

—

This selection comes from Zoe Tuck’s book of poetry Terror Matrix, available from Timeless, Infinite Light! Purchase your copy here!

Zoe Tuck was born in Texas, where she first encountered two of her great loves: poetry and breakfast tacos. Since relocating to the Bay Area in 2008, she has been an active member of the local literary community, working for several years at Small Press Distribution and co-curating Condensery Reading Series. Her book, Terror Matrix (2014) is available from Timeless, Infinite Light. Some of her recent work can be found in Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry, as well as online in issue 18 of textsound and issue 15 of dusie. She is also a poetry reader forHOLD: a journal, a monthly blogger at Michigan Quarterly Review, and an occasional book reviewer at the Volta blog. She is currently at work on a manuscript of tarot poems called Summer Arcana. Find her at zoetuck.com or on twitter @oh_that_zoe.

Darren C. Demaree is the author of three poetry collections, As We Refer to Our Bodies (2013, 8th House), Temporary Champions (2014, Main Street Rag), and Not For Art For Prayer (2015, 8th House). He is the recipient of three Pushcart Prize nominations and a Best of the Net nomination. He is also a founding editor of Ovenbird Poetry and AltOhio. He is currently living in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and children.

not exed just self-sent to another corner
of the empire though i still smelled of
clay and claimed a home in themiscyra
     i fell out of habit into cauldron so i
asked it since i misheard the lyrics are
we done here   drop the scrim it’s time
to introduce the villain which suggests
a victim     is it i presumed protagonist
the shrill and tender bleater if house
presume a plane and sewer no it’s just
as well that ladder we should climb     or
queue to climb or sit and turn within
but given space should we not dance
it through     think this for a moment
when a witch’s spell’s first word is toil
then does a poem mix if backlit penny
and frontlit spore     don’t answer that
my advocate advised me and implicate
yourself i started bleeding     implied
investigators found this troubling as they
had looked my language over     found
no wound

—

This selection comes from Zoe Tuck’s book of poetry Terror Matrix, available from Timeless, Infinite Light! Purchase your copy here!

Zoe Tuck was born in Texas, where she first encountered two of her great loves: poetry and breakfast tacos. Since relocating to the Bay Area in 2008, she has been an active member of the local literary community, working for several years at Small Press Distribution and co-curating Condensery Reading Series. Her book, Terror Matrix (2014) is available from Timeless, Infinite Light. Some of her recent work can be found in Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry, as well as online in issue 18 of textsound and issue 15 of dusie. She is also a poetry reader forHOLD: a journal, a monthly blogger at Michigan Quarterly Review, and an occasional book reviewer at the Volta blog. She is currently at work on a manuscript of tarot poems called Summer Arcana. Find her at zoetuck.com or on twitter @oh_that_zoe.

Darren C. Demaree is the author of three poetry collections, As We Refer to Our Bodies (2013, 8th House), Temporary Champions (2014, Main Street Rag), and Not For Art For Prayer (2015, 8th House). He is the recipient of three Pushcart Prize nominations and a Best of the Net nomination. He is also a founding editor of Ovenbird Poetry and AltOhio. He is currently living in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and children.

only look askance at me and you shall
have all three     where did i go so wrong
document testament servility     only look
askance     have you ever been in prison
i am compelled to accept your jabs like
kisses     when did you first speak the
word comrade and where     let me borrow
blood return diluted what does it mean
to be a leftist speak my name     kill me
kill me don’t hurt me what does it mean
to be a girl     don’t stand in my way   do 10
you trust me help me     what does it
mean to assert that silence equals     i’ll
go freely death to the stone table of your
speech what does it mean to use your
life     many contradictory variants for a
figure no torch in my palm speech thrust
at me hiding on the playground reading
in the mine-car     the privilege to move

—

This selection comes from Zoe Tuck’s book of poetry Terror Matrix, available from Timeless, Infinite Light! Purchase your copy here!

Zoe Tuck was born in Texas, where she first encountered two of her great loves: poetry and breakfast tacos. Since relocating to the Bay Area in 2008, she has been an active member of the local literary community, working for several years at Small Press Distribution and co-curating Condensery Reading Series. Her book, Terror Matrix (2014) is available from Timeless, Infinite Light. Some of her recent work can be found in Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry, as well as online in issue 18 of textsound and issue 15 of dusie. She is also a poetry reader forHOLD: a journal, a monthly blogger at Michigan Quarterly Review, and an occasional book reviewer at the Volta blog. She is currently at work on a manuscript of tarot poems called Summer Arcana. Find her at zoetuck.com or on twitter @oh_that_zoe.

Darren C. Demaree is the author of three poetry collections, As We Refer to Our Bodies (2013, 8th House), Temporary Champions (2014, Main Street Rag), and Not For Art For Prayer (2015, 8th House). He is the recipient of three Pushcart Prize nominations and a Best of the Net nomination. He is also a founding editor of Ovenbird Poetry and AltOhio. He is currently living in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and children.