JUST POETRY!!!


the National Poetry Quarterly


JUST POETRY!!! the National Poetry Quarterly



best of issue





Summer 2023 - 2024



Tteokbokki at midnight


Tteokbokki at midnight:

simmered rice cakes dried up & shriveled against plasticine wrap,

baked in the microwave for exactly a minute and 33 seconds. Preferably

held in the poorly-glazed ceramic bowl you painted at summer camp

eight years ago, best served to <90 pound Asian girls with dried lips,

greasy hair and self-diagnosed borderline personality disorder.

It looks as if curdled milk & sickled blood had a baby, bathed & baptized

in the buttery-yellow refrigerator light. watch reality TV half past 12 and

turn the volume down to a nice odd number like 15—but make sure it's

not loud enough for Mom to wake up & get mad. Flicking through channels,

you realize everything at this hour looks like it crawled out of an urban legend. What a picture of indulgence--you should be finishing up your

calculus homework! But tempted by bite-sized existentialist thoughts,

absurdist rationales and pragmatic delusions swirling in a bowl of

gochujang paste—who can refuse? Later, you find yourself up-close

and personal with the toilet seat, face-down as you push your hair back.

acid reflux, sticky fingers clenching a towel. The bathroom smells

of clorox and rotten mangos. Your teeth will inevitably turn yellow

after a few months of this, so make sure to double-layer your toothpaste,

smile into the mirror & tell yourself it’ll make a difference.

Katherine Zhao Mailing, NY, John L Miller Great Neck North High School​




EDITOR'S CHOICE





Summer 2023-2024



Your Pomegranate (a poem inspired by Sylvia Plath)


I severed my own stem to fall at your feet.

But you did not pick me up. You did not see me, I think.


And so I willed myself my own pair of feet, and marched onto your plate.

And still you did not pick me up. You did not see me, I think.


And so I sprouted my own pair of arms

And took the knife into my hands, poised to cut.

And still you did not —

So I split my skin, cleaved it apart

And there I lay, broken, a cleft carcass

Exposed before you on a china plate.


I severed my own stem

I split my own skin, to serve myself

To you.

I do not have a reason, then, to cry

When you, at last, pick me up.

I do not have a reason, then

For the agony and for

The pain of your grasp


For I am

Your pomegranate.
Maya Anvar, NY, Rudolf Steiner School



ALL OTHER CERTIFIED National winners
Summer 2023 - 2024



Hymnal for the Static Night - Olivia Wang, MA, Commonwealth School

:II (Repeat) - Yoonsa Lee, MA, Deerfield Academy

A Hummus Revolution - Renee Tiwari, IL, Adalai Stevenson High School

Baptized in Low Tide - Anna Mohanty, VA, Washington-Liberty High School

the things we keep - Maggie Wu, CA, Arnold O. Beckman High School

san francisco apartment complex - Audrey Wang, AL, Indian Springs School

Words we don't say - Aadya Bharadwaj, NJ, Kent Place School

Transformation Unseen - Matther Heur, CA, La Canada High School

the cygnet - Matthew Hoang, CA, Esperanza High School

Charred Butterfly - Leo Mazur, NY, HS for Mathematics, Science, and Engineering

Eight - Maureen Wilson, OH, Middletown High School

wormhole - Max Lee, GA, Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science, and Technology

a family poem - Melinda Wang, CA, Archer School for Girls

adhesive prophecies - Mackenzie Shearon, PA, North Allegheny Sr. High School

Infant Mortality - Dana Sims, NC, Hillside High School

golden age - Chelsea Zhu, MD, Richard Montgomery High School

bitter = contaminated waters - Rebecca Flaum, CA, Vacaville High School

Lost in Translation - Jennifer Wan, MD, Richard Montgomery High School

Wildfire Season - Yuqi Zhang, CA, Westview High School

Reminiscing About Old Best Friends... - Martin Auriel Costa, CA, Olympian HS

Thawing Secrets - Anna Hepler, VA, Deep Run High School

Cold Open - Elliott Orchard-Blowen, NH, Oyster River High School

Salt - George Boone, NJ, Delaware Valley Regional High School

a grieving girl's crying log - Ashley Mo, CA, The Harker Upper School

I can feel the moment flowing - Jagoda Gliniak, AZ, Gilbert Classical Academy

Joan of Arc - Isabelle Qi, NJ, Ridge High School

the people of this house - Azailia Skoglund, WI, Lincoln High School

Suppose I Stop Running - Nora Gupta, NY, The Bronx High School of Science

Pelican-Throated in a Starving World - Jasmine Leng, MA, Longmeadow High School

Love is not her mourners' sound - Maia Xiang-Yi Lin, CA Palo Alto High School

Slash and Burn - Mendel Cohen, MD, Oakland Mills High School






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