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Red Flag is so much more than just postcards!

We also publish digitally, every other month, via the Poetry Express. This format gives us the freedom to publish work that won’t fit on a postcard but still needs to be shared with the world.

On this page, you will find all of our past Poetry Express poems with information about their authors. If you like these poems and want to get even more poetry delivered directly to your mailbox, head over to our subscribe page!

Ashley Green: "Youth"

8/28/2020

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Youth

I.
We’d pass secrets to one another.
 
Hide them behind crooked teeth,
chew on them for hours until our jaws hung slack,
or swallow them whole and cradle the ache
in the pit of our stomachs,
but never once did we let them fall from our mouths. 
 
Our smiles made up of rotten truths,
our insides coated with horror,
our blood thick with each other. 
 
II.
I dipped my legs in tar.
 
Left skin and bone behind,
waded through thick waters,
until I was waist high in Death. 
 
She watched from the shore,
knees bare and pink
beneath the hem of a mourning dress,
and claimed she could not swim. 
 
III.
Her voice compressed.
 
A new tone, tangy and untrue,
rolled off her tongue and hung heavy
between us. 
 
I sifted through the sound,
searched for a familiar note, 
but all I gathered was goodbye
in splintered octaves. 
 
IV.
Our scars no longer matched. 
 
The ways in which I was torn and sewn
appeared slipshod compared to her                                                                                        
silver threads of tidy burden,
and so we both made the mistake
of thinking the other too weak – 
 
she with her secrets hidden
and mine so brazenly shown.
 

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Ashley is Southern California based writer, poet, and general weirdo with pieces in Adelaide Literary Magazine, Rabid Oak, and Sunday Mornings at the River, among others. Find her on Instagram @amoderncrone.
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Anna Nissley: "Ambivalent"

8/21/2020

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Ambivalent
 
I’m learning how to live both ways.
That is, with intense doubt and
Uncontainable joy— 
The kind that comes out in bursts of laughter 
That can’t be explained
As anything I’ve asked for or earned.
I haven’t asked for it, 
Or anything for that matter
But here are blurred skies,
Pop songs, an unprecedented love of succulents,
So many kinds of plastic,
Backpacking for fun,
And the sun (what is the sun?)—  
One day, I was hiking with my sister and a friend
We stuffed our mouths with blueberries
And I almost spewed them onto the forest floor
From laughter.
There’s a picture of it: sunburned face, cheeks dimpled and bulging with berries
And the blur of my hand ready to catch them 
In case they flew out.

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Anna Nissley is a recent graduate of Kutztown University who majored in Secondary English Education and Spanish with a minor in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Anna works as an 8th grade English teacher and spends her spare time writing, reading, cooking, and gardening. She is slated to begin a thru-hike on the Appalachian Trail in the spring of 2021.
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Sophie Laing: "Measuring"

8/12/2020

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Measuring
​

A hop, skip, and a jump
across mason jars that connect us 
in the kitchen, your aprons have never 
matched mine. I always see if we can throw 
spoonfuls of sauces across the island 
to each other. I think we should constantly 
be testing the laws of attraction
and of fate. When we sleep sometimes 
I pretend you’re someone else
so when we wake up I can’t lie 
to myself before I look at you,
so I can’t prepare what I feel. 
I need that one renewed, fresh second 
of feeling, seedling of truth before 
we start to scatter spices on counter tops 
throughout the day 
and finish each other’s recipes. 

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Sophie is from sort-of-upstate New York. Her poems have also appeared in Lucky Jefferson, Kissing Dynamite, Déraciné Magazine, and elsewhere. Sophie can be found on Twitter @sophalinalaing.
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