On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous//Ocean Vuong (contemporary fiction)

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle//Stuart Turton (mystery)

Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls//T Kira Madden (memoir)

Ayesha at Last//Uzma Jalaluddin (romance)

Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened//Allie Brosh (humour/graphic novel/memoir)

i must have

a sterile touch

fingertips dripping

alcohol to numb

pleaure i should

give and can’t

seem to handle

clear a way out

of a thought spiralling

in time with the sound

of alarms rising pitch

and volume to fill

everything unknown

but damn

i breathe hard

some days

my chest heaves

from the effort

it takes to stay

alive there isnt

much to it

and yet here

i am asking

if it’s worth it

if i should be

going at this

even with just

the fifty percent

ready to quit

a one side love affair

a two-month choke hold

a three-armed dragon

wrapping around warped

limbs i knew only to collapse

after freedom’s comfort

was robbed of the right

to breathe and possess

light up a cigarette

i don’t smoke just to hold

between shaking breaths

and fingers in cold air

stale conversation stalled

in anticipation of a break

something like surrender

to what’s right here burning