Catapult | Poetry

Cover Photo: An image of a man walking surrounded by birds, books, flowers and other joys

Let Me Show You

oh, how my little joys have saved me

Jonny Teklit

Oct 13, 2021

Catapult | Poetry

Cover Photo: illustration of a front porch in the evening, with three different generations represented by a chair, a rocking chair, and toys scattered on the porch, with windchimes in the foreground and a school building visible in the distance

When your friend tells you: “these kids

at night, when i’m outside and / the wind shakes the chimes, it sounds like the bell

Adam Harris

Sep 14, 2021

Catapult | Poetry

Cover Photo: a man standing on an abstract beach depicted in shades of black, purple, and fiery red, with ashes swirling around and a red phoenix flying overhead

Ashes at Kande Beach, Malawi

Everything is an elegy these days, all chipped rings, / clipped wings.

Steven Duong

Jun 29, 2021

Catapult | Poetry

Cover Photo: abstract nude of a reclining woman with dark brown braids whose skin is a variety of brown and caramel shades, dark and light shadows meant to evoke crystalline-sugar highlights

Sugar

I took my time shrugging / into this divinity

Camonghne L Felix

Jun 02, 2021

Catapult | Poetry

Cover Photo: a brown hand raised, waving against a background of blue sky

[Political] Dialogue

There were two worlds then, the one we lived in and the one she invented, where my aunt remarried and nobody ever went to America

Hala Alyan

Jun 01, 2021

Catapult | Poetry

Cover Photo: Original illustration by Sirin Thada featuring many schools of fish, an underwater doorway, and a person standing in it with a suitcase.

Origin Story

I became an invader myself / a pathogen with survival traits

Steven Duong

May 24, 2021

Catapult | Poetry

Cover Photo: An illustration of a shrubland/desert scene in the American Southwest

A Man Called After Dark

the smoke of belt burn / and nectarines and me / — I will learn to love him

Jake Skeets

May 17, 2021

Catapult | Poetry

Cover Photo: A lively, lush spring/summer park scene depicting people walking dogs, playing with their children, tossing a frisbee, feeding pigeons, sitting on benches and on the grass

On Some Saturday, After All of This

there is little room for sourness, / little room for anything other than a vibrating joy

Jonny Teklit

May 11, 2021

Catapult | Poetry

Cover Photo: An image of a woman in park with tree surrounding her

Universe With No Fictional Films

I was afraid of being kidnapped.

Kristen Steenbeeke

May 06, 2021

Catapult | Poetry

Cover Photo: photograph of a painting depicting a starry field in shades of yellow, green, and blue, above an abstract, large feathery pale blue body that could be ocean waves

Even When Looking Up, He Thinks He Is Above the Stars

The world was a changed thing / a variant of its former self, and you were / A new ripple in the miles-deep pool of time, / that one breath strumming the tender / Chords of the system.

Camonghne L Felix

Apr 21, 2021

Catapult | Poetry

Cover Photo: Illustration by Sirin Thada for Catapult

A Letter to My Mother, or Ode to Invisible Things

Dear sudden inspiration, creeping uncertainty, tiny splinter of glass, / sometimes you cannot be enough.

Ryan Dzelzkalns

Mar 15, 2021

Catapult | Poetry

Time Lapse

In a time lapse, nothing happens smoothly. / Red horns quake as they splinter / from limbs on the bottlebrush.

Gabrielle Bates

Mar 12, 2021

Catapult | Poetry

Cover Photo: A foggy landscape with trees and water just visible through sun-shot fog

Some Days

Some days come too soon.

Cate Lycurgus

Mar 02, 2021

Catapult | Poetry

Cover Photo: Photograph by byronv2/Flickr

A TEMPLATE FOR YOUR FIRST EVER NATIVE AMERICAN “LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT”

Do I directly benefit from the enslavement and genocide of the original people of this land? Absolutely.

Migizi Pensoneau

Feb 24, 2021

Catapult | Poetry

Cover Photo: two sisters with dark brown hair, brown skin, and large hoop earrings sitting at a dining table, talking and laughing in front of a window with abstract trees in the distance; one is holding a wine glass. painted illustration is in "spice tones" of brown, saffron, crimson, and burnt orange

Self-Portrait with Cumin, Saffron, and Star Anise

To Cumin, Saffron, and Star Anise, sisters / of the roasted goat and rice ritual, daughters / of smoke and gossip, glowing and bloodwarm

Sadia Hassan

Feb 17, 2021

Catapult | Poetry

Cover Photo: An illustration of a snake, poised to strike, fangs bared, as if almost smiling

The Only Invitation

I was begging / for some grandeur even if it meant / a little blood or whole limb

Ben Purkert

Feb 08, 2021

Catapult | Poetry

Cover Photo: illustration of a rooster in a backyard, with a fence and palm tree in the background, and a hammock just visible in the yard beyond the fence

WHAT IS A COUNTRY TO A UNIVERSE?

a rooster crows from a neighbor’s backyard / pinche gallo, Abuelo spits, looks quick / to see if i wake from the noise / of Spring

Alexis Aceves Garcia

Feb 02, 2021

Catapult | Poetry

Cover Photo: An image of someone standing on the sink looking at their reflection of their body in the mirror.

Mirror Stage

We remember how hard it has always been to see our body.

Miles A.M. Collins-Sibley

Jan 26, 2021

Catapult | Poetry

Blood Moon

She is determined to follow the smoke—a hymn / for what’s gone missing.

Nadra Mabrouk

Jan 12, 2021

Catapult | Poetry

Cover Photo: illustration of two men embracing under a Japanese maple tree in the foreground; behind them is a Nagoya street filled with shops and cafes and a shrine, with mountains in the distance

I Must Become a Menace to My Enemies

if you believe me to be your enemy know this I accept

Ryan Dzelzkalns

Jan 05, 2021

Catapult | Poetry

Poetry A poetry series edited by Tommy Pico