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They live
beneath the
green lamp
and they never touch.
but, they move,
like figurines on the mantelpiece.
Yes we have such things, lucky us.
Figurines on the mantelpiece.
means no nerve endings.
We're not allowed that,
because the room has flowers.
And yet
my people walked upright out of
a paper grave. Arm to femur.
My people walked out of the river.
How many, I asked, can you bear.
“Hundreds and hundreds,” she said,
Her Matthew leading the brigade
of some said persons.
Our nerves flare like matches, an army of fire.
The figurines shift, just.



Meg Smith is a poet, journalist, dancer, and events producer living in Lowell, Mass. Her poems have appeared in The Cafe Review, The Offering, Astropoetica, Illumen, Dreams & Nightmares, the Dwarf Stars anthology of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association, and many more. She is a past board member of Lowell Celebrates Kerouac! She recently published a second book of poetry, Dear Deepest Ghost, available on Amazon.
Current Issue
9 Feb 2026

“I’ve never actually visited the pā before,” she said out loud. “Is this where they gather lāʻī to make the pūʻolo?” she asked. “Yes,” Benny responded, glancing to see where Nanea was pointing. “Here and in other places as well. Many of these ti have been growing for decades now.” She paused for a moment. “I think about all the work you guys do, you know, up in those offices, and I think that all of that work actually starts from right here, in the ground, all covered in the earth and the pōhaku and the ti. Most people don’t even know it, but it all starts right here.
sometime in the night, we heard rocking and knocking and rapping and tapping, a million trillion tiny feet
The triangles bred and twisted, replicating themselves.
Wednesday: Arctic Knot by Ivan Leonov 
Friday: Manga's First Century: How Creators and Fans Made Japanese Comics, 1905–1989 by Andrea Horbinski 
Issue 2 Feb 2026
By: Natasha King
Podcast read by: Jenna Hanchey
Issue 26 Jan 2026
Issue 19 Jan 2026
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