As they sleep, so sleeps the conflict.
Their wounds drink healing breaths
under the blankets, their undulation
of terror and grief becomes
the rise and fall of their chests.
In the morning, his closed eyes
deliver a desire for treaty
to replace cease-fire. She will
lay down her arms around him.
Arden Levine is the author of Ladies’ Abecedary (Harbor Editions, 2021). Her poems have appeared in AGNI, Harvard Review, RHINO, River Styx, Spillway, and other journals. Arden lives in New York City, where her daily work focuses on housing affordability, homelessness prevention, and equitable community development. More at http://www.ardenlevine.com.
Guest Editor, Joan Kwon Glass (she/her) is the biracial, Korean American author of NIGHT SWIM, winner of the 2021 Diode Editions Book Contest, & is author of three chapbooks. Joan is the Editor in Chief of Harbor Review, a Brooklyn Poets mentor, poet laureate of Milford, CT, a Connecticut Office of the Arts Artists Respond grantee & poetry co-editor of West Trestle Review. A proud Smith College graduate, she has been a public school educator for 20 years. Her poems have appeared in Diode, Rattle, South Florida Poetry Journal, & many others. She grew up in Michigan & South Korea & lives in Connecticut with her family.
The Coop: A Poetry Cooperative 