by Zakia Carpenter-Hall | Apr 30, 2026 | Featured, Poetry
Reflex That was the time you caught the mumps and I was half afraid I’d catch it too. Or it was measles and it was me who had it, lying in bed for days reading the bible – children’s version, illustrated – where the devil was all red and had pig’s...
by Zakia Carpenter-Hall | Apr 29, 2026 | Featured, Poetry
Prevention Science Walking home from the lecture on Frankenstein through the November mizzle, small breaths of exhaust sighing in the twilight headlights, particles of wet air commingling. When I look into the branches of the evergreens I can...
by Zakia Carpenter-Hall | Apr 27, 2026 | Featured, Poetry
Octopus I am one Like short of being beautiful. Five hundred more Followers, I’m away to fight culture wars. I Block two for lies Quora does not verify. Counter-factuals are ok, there’s simmering wastelands to make out of vague, but someone sent a shroom...
by Zakia Carpenter-Hall | Apr 25, 2026 | Featured, Poetry
This poem is a secret after Elma Mitchell It doesn’t trust paper. It writes itself in my head where no one can reach it, laugh, tear it to shreds, or call it a waste of space, a disgrace. A poem is grace, a prayer, my longing for more than I am....
by Zakia Carpenter-Hall | Apr 24, 2026 | Featured, Poetry
The Day Nothing Happened It was a quiet day— no bad news, no sudden loss, no reason to hold my breath. I didn’t notice it at first, how rare that is. The sky stayed where it was, the ground didn’t give way, my phone remained silent in the best...
by Zakia Carpenter-Hall | Apr 23, 2026 | Featured, Poetry
Lot’s Wife I think today of the boy in choir class who closed his eyes when we sang about Jesus. Who swayed, as if the Lord himself was in the room. I sat in the back row and braided my girlfriend’s hair. Men are allowed to worship each other. To...
