Dorothy Chan’s Editor’s Note: A Triple Sonnet for Valentine’s Day
Here’s your annual V Day Triple Sonnet from yours truly, Editor-in-Chief Dorothy Chan.
Valentines: “Hercules in his Boyfriend’s Hair” by Gustavo Hernandez
“This myth, like everything // else in the realm of love, can be stripped down to the vulnerable.”
Our Valentine’s Day issue opens with this moving poem by Gustavo Hernandez.
Animals: Three Poems by Luisa A. Igloria
“The old queen / would leave the hive whenever she wanted to // without being followed by a swarm”
We move into the “Hypocenter” in this trio of poems.
Valentines: "MuslimVDay Cards - The Decade Retrospective" by Tanzila “Taz” Ahmed
For the past decade on every valentines day, I made a set of six cards around my interpretation of what I think Muslim Valentines Day should celebrate.
Rants and Raves: “Drake been a bitch, a rant: The Biracial Baddie strikes, again” by Kendra Allen
…Because Drake has always been a bitch.
Here’s the one-and-only Kendra Allen with a rant that encapsulates why this category was created.
Sex, Kink, and the Erotic: Two Poems by Jubi Arriola-Headley
“In our pursuit of the fruit // we’d take the form of matter and myth – let time be / swallowed by the light, order by chaos, conviction”
Poetry: Three Poems by Michael Sun
Oh gosh, time for three stunners by Michael Sun:
“this is her bibimbap /
she has two languages to say I love you / “
Hybrid: "A Year in San Diego - an Ecopoetic" by Grace Dunbar-Miller
haibun / time / nonlinear / love
Animals: “Egg White Indigo Blue” by Dia Bhojwani
“I hunger. I eat. I sleep.
I hunger. I eat. I sleep.”
Be ready to be entranced.
Hybrid: “Black Woman Bricolage” by Sherri- Anne Forde
“The following piece records and explores the experiences of black women I interviewed in 2022, my own experiences as a black woman, and the thoughts and research that arose throughout the project. The women quoted here have never met.”
Animals: Two Poems by Ricky Ray
Honey Literary loves dear Addie, and we love honoring our animals.
Hybrid: “Sunflowers” by Tiffany Babb
“We mirror each other like pages of a book.”
The Hive welcomes the amazing Tiffany Babb back!
Poetry: “Sandwich Shop in Rapid City, SD” by Eliana Chow
“That summer, I was rejected in every white man’s journal, / and I felt bad for my poems, my children, / when I couldn’t build them a home.”
Hybrid: "The Same in Common" by Paula Molina Acosta
“Maybe disruption was not a flaw of the greater world, but a characteristic of all people, even lesbians. Maybe there could be joy in chaos and boldness.”
We are in love with this dynamic comic by Paula Molina Acosta.
Valentines: “Oh oh oh We’re on Fire” by K. Iver
Do you get a more fire title than this? I think not.
“…tell me I’m headed that way.”
Poetry: “America’s Next Top Model” by Shira Haus
Here is the dream. Here is the truth. Let’s sashay and come out on top, into this must-read by Shira Haus.
Animals: “Coquí Becomes a Revolutionary Bullet” by Nicole Arocho Hernández
for centuries, I have lived
innumerable songs
died the most humiliating deaths
became a nation’s lullaby…
Animals: Two Poems by April Lim
If the sun shines on all the same, then let me bask.
I’ve used up every matchbox to light the ocean, trailed
a thousand rivers to and from. Did you know…
Interviews: An Interview with Saida Agostini on let the dead in by Diamond Forde
Saida Agostini’s let the dead in is a marvel; a monument to stubborn love, to a healing community, and to fat black girls everywhere, this book thrives because of the care and introspection Agostini brings to her work.
Poetry: “dear Coney Island” by Gia Shakur
Dear, the book pried the water with a door stop
petitions were offered to the blackened swell.
Whittled spirits and last bones rabbets wind…