Read the winning piece of our 2025 Nonfiction Contest “Through the Mirror” by Jessie Cato selected by Lucy Ives.

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Ralph Burns

Voices in American Poetry

Summer 1984

Lacking Sympathy

By Ralph Burns

My father fishes the red sun down, October, a kind of concurrent posture, a live oak living where it likes and falling for no reason. Over the pond the geese […]

Voices in American Poetry

Summer 1984

The Jay

By Ralph Burns

My wife says he simply flew before he had to, late at night. He’d flown onto the porch and, confused, flew into this poem. Stared actually at the pitch that […]