What Happened Was Impossible
in the sense that these things can’t happen, like you opened a chest and greek goddesses flew out and what they did How many? at least six. The greek goddesses, what they did is, they were hungry having been in a trunk A wood trunk? wooden, yes, it was cedar and the first thing they […]
Editor-noteS Issue #39
39 interior.indd 1 2/16/22 6:00 PM ••• iii February 11, 2022 Dear readers, Fence is made for you. If this is the first literary magazine you are holding in your hands, and especially if you do not identify as a writer, we know you are there, looking for something other than whatever is currently being […]
A Call for Writing by Professional Nurses
An enormous thank you to Sarah Hope Kagan, PhD, RN, FAAN, FGSA, AOCN, GCNS-BC.University of Pennsylvania Professor of Gerontological Nursing. Lucy Walker Term Professor, Abramson Cancer Center at Pennsylvania Hospital. With Sarah generously volunteering to reach out to her vast network of fellow nurses, Fence was able to circulate the below letter soliciting writing from […]
Splitting Fire
Traffic is a bully on 94w, and it’s a relief to exit at the Johnson’s Creek Outlets. Jefferson is still ten plus miles away, and just like Whitewater, where I grew up, but also just like the moon. Flat asphalt right into the sun. The road curves at the foot of the granary. To submit […]
Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, America
His grandmother died. It was summer-late summer-and he lived in Rhode Island, where he’d been to the beach only twice since July. It wasn’t a big deal; grandmothers passed. This was what they did. It wasn’t a parent but someone over one hundred years old, her mind soft now, her speech ever-pregnant with questions. She […]
A Rusted Birdcage in an Otherwise Empty Field: Videopoem and Process Notes
Process Notes “In your loneliness, you hear the word from far away and then, in gratitude, look at it so closely that you cannot but drown in it.” ― Edmond Jabès I have written elsewhere about the videopoetry form: its potential to reconnect poetry back to the body & the breath, and the ways in […]
The Longer It Drags on, the Less It’s about You
Photo of interior spread of A Flag of No Nation, Jewish Currents Press, 2019 In 2012 I was new to New York and moving around temporary sublets in Greenpoint, using my lack of a lease as an excuse to meet people. Tom Haviv was one of those people. We never actually lived together, but he showed […]
DEEP TISSUE
The Annunciation (ca. 1440-1445), Fra Angelico Deep Tissue Two housesits in Hudson, NY; two mysterious scratch marks; two bats; two cats; two multimedia art installations; two concerts at Knockdown Center in Queens; and a second interview with Xiu Xiu’s Jamie Stewart. * * * I walk to the cemetery, write a name down on paper, […]
Three Poems from Mare’s Nest
The Last Porch Sit Chair They’re not bedsores if it’s not a bed Spoonfed I feel dolled & nightmare about a piebald suit of old curtains I Dread The afterparts When they’ll weep how good I was Undecorated I turn nice to the bit […]
Rasputin
i may have a hog body but at least i’m a strong-willed pig [ !!!! ] | if u see someone w/ the exact same face kill them | for instance kirsten dunst | lube via lather-intimacy via stand-in-ice floe via polar bears | contused-confused [ ???? ]-how odd to see on the street-blossoming w/ […]
