INVERTED SYNTAX
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        • Josh Lefkowitz Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Carolyn Adams Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
      • We Are All Artists Exhibit Guide
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  • The Fissured Tongue Series
    • Fissured Tongue Volume 6
    • Fissured Tongue Volume 5
    • Fissured Tongue Volume 4
    • Fissured Tongue Volume 3
    • Fissured Tongue Volume 2
    • Fissured Tongue Volume 1
    • Online Issue One
    • Online Issue Two
  • Submission Guidelines
    • The Fissured Tongue Series Guide
    • POETRY BOOK CONTESTS
  • Poetry Contest Results
    • 2024 POETRY BOOK CONTESTS RESULTS
    • Sublingua 2023 Results
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    • Best Micro Fiction
  • The Art of the Postcard
    • About The Art of the Postcard
    • Art of the Postcard Issue 3
    • Art of the Postcard Issue 2
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    • We Are All Artists Exhibit
      • Video Compilation FirehouseArt Center Postcard Exhibit
      • Firehouse Exhibitors 2022
        • Churnage FirehouseArt Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Daniel Staub Weinberg Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Genevieve Rose Barr Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Eva Schultz Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Samantha Malay Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • D Allen Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Hayley Harris Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Tony Peyser Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Sarah Santoni Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Julia Klatt Singer Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Kathryn Kruse Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Meg Freer Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Moira Walsh Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Stephanie Staab Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Anne Swannell Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Laura Knott Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Jo Goren Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • CR Resetarits Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Sarah Ernestine Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Stephanie Johnson Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Charles J. March III Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Emily Mosley Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Grace Desmarais Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Emily Vieweg Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Claire Lawrence Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Meca'Ayo Cole Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Andrea Rexilius Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Christian Garduno Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Salma Ahmad Caller Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Glenn Thomas Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Claire Yspol Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Michael Thompson Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Rikki Santer Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Laura Gamache Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Christine Williams Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Stephanie Beechem Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Imma Dunach Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Ginny Short Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Josh Lefkowitz Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Carolyn Adams Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
      • We Are All Artists Exhibit Guide
      • We are All Artists Submission Form Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
Human expression is never orderly.
​It is a space of disruption.To let ourselves express means to be vulnerable.​It means to invert syntax so as to articulate the visceral. 

I N V E R T E D
​​S Y N T A X

THE FISSURED TONGUE SERIES

Picture
“Certainty I" by Lisa Berley, mixed media, 22 x 30 inches, 2013.

Fissured Tongue | Volume Two

This volume "contains themes of justice and loss, memory and embodiment, attempts to respect and understand the past as we move into an updated future, even if some days it's hard to see beyond tomorrow."  

Read Jesica Davis's Letter from the Editor on Fissured Volume Two.

​Cover Art  “Certainty I" by Lisa Berley, mixed media, 22 x 30 inches, 2013.
In this Volume
peruse below or check out our pdf version
Volume 2 (PDF)
Picture
​Maria Takolander
Four poems


Discover Maria's Takolander's Four poems, including an elegiacal poem that uses the rogue form of a cyclical chart to reflect on the repetitive nature of daily routines. 
Picture
Moachiba Jamir
“Kindred” 
​

​[...]“she had borne children but they could never live up to the reputation of her sister’s children who lived in the city—just like she could never live up to her father’s expectations, just like she could never be fully loved by her father no matter what she did, just like she was remembered only by the name of her sister Lapunaro—her own name lost in her father’s sea of failures, him refusing to rescue it. It was better this way, she had always comforted herself, it did not even matter, she used to say to pacify her anger, but it did, it did to her and she hated him every day for it.” 
Picture
Devynity Wray
​
“BRIGHT” 

“ ​I’m Betty Shabazz with a blazer on and the bang out
Queen Latifah in the role of Cleo finna bang out
Sojourner in my truth aint I a woman?
We got the same mouth
I’m Harriet – rifle close to my side ready to aim out
” 
​​
Picture
Jordan Anderson
Five poems


"my skin is not any thicker than yours, i don’t think.
and when i skin my knee at recess in first grade,

nurse candy shouldn't dub my tears crocodile" 
-- from
le rêve américain

Jordan's poems boldly address the body and trauma. The writer explores myths about the Black body, crushes, and sex trafficking.
Picture
Michael Hatcher 
​"
Some languages need not be translated"


A veteran of poetry slam, Michael has represented several Dallas and Fort Worth area slam teams four times at the National Poetry Slam and served as slam master on the Inkwell Slam Team for two years.
​
​"My writing is my best attempt at bending or altering the boundaries placed on words."
Picture
Jonan Pilet
"Locusts"


“Gan used his thumb to stuff more of the bugs into an empty soda bottle. After a few days the locusts that remained would slow; they would stop moving completely. They lived longer by staying motionless. And in the bottle, they’d stay fresh. But for now, they vibrated the plastic with life. Gan grabbed a locust and held it to Zorig. 'What if something’s snatching us up? Just like the locusts?' ” 

​Pilet wrote “Locusts” ​ when revisiting his childhood home of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia in the summer of 2019. He noticed that the children that had lived in the sewers were no longer around the city. So he asked around to try to figure out what had happened. "Locusts" is based on the stories he was told.
Picture
Danielle Ferrara 
​Two poems


“Only when the door appears do floors mutate. 

At first there 

                         were only the windows, changing landscapes so that I 
would not remember any of them.” 
​
​
Picture
​Mary-Pat Buss 
​
“ Stable” 

​“An older man stood over me. A bird landed on his shoulder.
He was explaining to my mother that there had been a mistake.
My morphine feed had not been hooked up properly.
​A day and a half had passed and no medication had reached me.
” 
​
​
Picture
Christopher Rubio-Goldsmith
Two poems


“I only took drugs
when they were offered at parties
by others who were doing drugs too.
I only like
faded rugs at parties, their sharp colors
remind me of friends who leave.
” 
Picture
​Sarah Berbank Green
​"Karin, in Four Parts"


“ I wanted to engage with a character from the inside out, sifting through the fragments of her inner and outer worlds, passions, memories, and misconceptions in order to explore the way in which the narratives we build around our personal experiences shape, color, and sometimes distort our perception of ourselves and our place in the world.”
Picture
Giles Goodland 
​
Two poems


​“a bird speaks its bright notion, 
in its beak it cannot be 
song, it bears too much 
that has just this side of 
occurred: the derivative rain,
” 
​
Picture
Joshua G. Adair 
​
“ Those Who Cant” 

​“ ​I learned the word “effeminate” as a third-grader; it was 1985 and I was not yet 9. From the moment I heard it, I was convinced it was a curse, something no one should say – and I wondered why I had never heard it before. It escaped the mouth of Mrs. Ross, one of my two third grade teachers, and I knew she intended it to insult me [...] I was not that kid, however, because I had been a target for a long time; I also, on occasion, adopted the affect of a forty-year-old. Queer kids learn to do that early, once they realize they are ‘different.’​ ” ​ 
Picture
Becca Barniskis 
​Five Poems from the
“ Large Soft Woman” series

About “Large Soft Woman” poems, Becca writes that they “explore through voice and character the oppression of women as a material condition of capitalism; they also make visible the ways women do or can seize power in various ways. I am interested in all the ways women appear and disappear in daily life and discourse and have found the label “Large Soft Woman” helpful in this regard.” 
Picture
Eva Olivier
​​
“Karina and the Total Dick Move” 

“Karina perched on the edge of a stained couch and pretended to sip her beer. Across the dimly lit room, a half-wasted Brie snuggled up with Elias. Karina had to admit he was pretty gorgeous, but a prick was still a prick — no matter how good it looked, it’d still blast you in the eye when you least expected it. Karina forced herself not to scowl as Elias wrapped an arm around Brie and boasted about his family’s beach house on the Outer Banks.” ​
Picture
Thomas Maurstad
“​ Lucky Man” 

About “ Lucky Man,”  Thomas writes, "We are living through an age of anxiety and overload, and as both an artist and a citizen, my existential challenge is to stay connected and to disconnect. When does connection become obsession? When does disconnection become denial? I want my writing to be of my time; I don’t want it to be about my time." 
​
Picture
Bob Gossom

“I watch the eagle” 

Back on shore I go to the shed and
                 take the small pick
On the ice again
                 I chop at the surface
It cracks a little but
                 I mar the hard ice
I don’t stop until the dead catfish
                 cannot be seen
​
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  • The Fissured Tongue Series
    • Fissured Tongue Volume 6
    • Fissured Tongue Volume 5
    • Fissured Tongue Volume 4
    • Fissured Tongue Volume 3
    • Fissured Tongue Volume 2
    • Fissured Tongue Volume 1
    • Online Issue One
    • Online Issue Two
  • Submission Guidelines
    • The Fissured Tongue Series Guide
    • POETRY BOOK CONTESTS
  • Poetry Contest Results
    • 2024 POETRY BOOK CONTESTS RESULTS
    • Sublingua 2023 Results
    • Sublingua 2022 Results
    • Sublingua 2020 Results
    • Sublingua 2019 Results
  • About Us
    • Masthead
    • More
      • Interviews
      • Blog
        • Blog
      • Resources
        • Writing resources
        • Mile-High MFA
          • Mile-High MFA Writers
          • Mile-High MFA Website
          • Faculty News & Interviews
    • Our Contributors
    • Mission
  • Store
  • Nominations & Awards
    • Pushcart Prize
    • Best of the Net
    • Best Micro Fiction
  • The Art of the Postcard
    • About The Art of the Postcard
    • Art of the Postcard Issue 3
    • Art of the Postcard Issue 2
    • Art of the Postcard Issue 1
    • We Are All Artists Exhibit
      • Video Compilation FirehouseArt Center Postcard Exhibit
      • Firehouse Exhibitors 2022
        • Churnage FirehouseArt Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Daniel Staub Weinberg Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Genevieve Rose Barr Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Eva Schultz Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Samantha Malay Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • D Allen Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Hayley Harris Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Tony Peyser Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Sarah Santoni Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Julia Klatt Singer Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Kathryn Kruse Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Meg Freer Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Moira Walsh Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Stephanie Staab Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Anne Swannell Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Laura Knott Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Jo Goren Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • CR Resetarits Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Sarah Ernestine Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Stephanie Johnson Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Charles J. March III Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Emily Mosley Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Grace Desmarais Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Emily Vieweg Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Claire Lawrence Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Meca'Ayo Cole Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Andrea Rexilius Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Christian Garduno Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Salma Ahmad Caller Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Glenn Thomas Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Claire Yspol Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Michael Thompson Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Rikki Santer Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Laura Gamache Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Christine Williams Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Stephanie Beechem Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Imma Dunach Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Ginny Short Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Josh Lefkowitz Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Carolyn Adams Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
      • We Are All Artists Exhibit Guide
      • We are All Artists Submission Form Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit