Cover Art: Bruce Nauman, "Study for Hologram," 1979. Screen print, SFMOMA

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America, what's in your mouth?

Spit it out. A speech to shade the ocean’s
hand? A river drunk on minutes’ pebbles?
Spit it out. What are you hiding? Spit
the bells out; ground up chimes for prairie
meals. Sweep the fire off your tongue, sweep
the fire from its flame. Mop the broom
and mail your name to canvas. Spit it out
and cook it on the clock-face. Spit out
winter on a hot plate, spit out summer
on a sleigh. Swallow nothing like today.

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Jake Sheff is a major and pediatrician in the US Air Force, married with a daughter and three pets. Currently home is the Mojave Desert. Poems of Jake’s are in Radius, The Ekphrastic Review, The Brooklyn Review, The Cossack Review and elsewhere. He won 1st place in the 2017 SFPA speculative poetry contest and was a finalist in the Rondeau Roundup’s 2017 triolet contest. His chapbook is “Looting Versailles” (Alabaster Leaves Publishing). 

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past, Terri Muuss                                                                                                                                                                            next, Molly Day