Rodrigo Toscano
THESE LANDS
Ok, so, Monday morning, God is dead
Like ancestors and dine-in Pizza Huts
Flashy things to say, what’s drab—is Tuesday
Backflowing into Monday, while Wednesday
Portends even weightier mysteries
Like, Taco Bell weekly menu updates
But Monday is Monday’s stated purpose
Glaringly murky, like Tuesday’s, Wednesday’s
An abyss of no meaning at midweek
Amidst the stark absence of mass violence
Thank God, wormification, and these lands
For tomatoes ripening by Thursday
For the return of that one-legged crow
On Friday, pecking the past week to bits
RODRIGO TOSCANO is the author of twelve books of poetry, most recently The Cut Point (Counterpath, 2023), The Charm & The Dread (Fence, 2022), and WHITMAN. CANNONBALL. PUEBLA (Omnidawn, 2025), a National Poetry Series finalist. His poetry has appeared in Best American Poetry (in 2023 and 2004), and in Best American Experimental Poetry.
ISSUE FIFTEEN features poetry by Samuel Amadon, Malachi Black, Thea Brown, Michael Chang, Adam Clay, Jose Hernandez Diaz, Sean Thomas Dougherty, Brandon Downing, Kami Enzie, Angie Estes, John Gallaher, Rachel Galvin, Matthew Gellman, Bob Hicok, Domenica Martinello, Julia Anna Morrison, Mark Nowak, Allan Peterson, Elizabeth Robinson, David Roderick, Mary Jo Salter, Rob Schlegel, Will Schutt, Donna Stonecipher, Rodrigo Toscano, Noah Warren, Phillip B. Williams, and Stella Wong; fiction by Aimee Bender, Amelia Gray, and Keith Lesmeister; creative nonfiction by Su-Yee Lin, Philip Metres, and Kim Gek Lin Short; and Donna Stonecipher in conversation with Camille Guthrie.