Issue 2.4

Note: for the best reading experience of ballast, we highly recommend viewing the journal on a desktop or laptop computer. If reading on a smartphone, the original formatting of the texts may be altered or lost.

Eleanor Ball:

  • “Only Then”

  • “Every month for forty years”

Debmalya Bandyopadhyay:

  • “Self-portrait as an abandoned water bottle”

Evelyn Berry:

  • ”Tease”

Robert Carr:

  • “Commands for My Surviving Husband”

  • “Retinal Detachment”

Ryan Clark:

  • “Evangel Church Lays Crosses in Spring”

  • “Miracle-Gro®”

Paul Cunningham:

  • from Brillo

Thomas Dunn:

  • “Translate: ‘patience’ as long”

Sarah A. Etlinger:

  • “No Ceremony”

Olivia Evans:

  • “stock”

Sandra Fees:

  • “Sunrise Pond after Sunset”

Knar Gavin:

  • “Reading Federici”

  • “elite captor”

Brett Harrington:

  • “Wake”

Jaime Jacques:

  • “I Confess I’m Jealous of Your Airbnb”

Justin Karcher:

  • “Because Light Can Bend Itself”

Alexis Levitin translating Salgado Maranhão:

  • “Stone Song XVIII”

  • “Stone Song XIX”

Anne Menasché:

  • “ROASTING THE CHICKEN AFTER HE’S LAID HANDS ON ME”

  • “THE WATER GLASS SPEAKS TO THE ARTIST”

Bella Moses:

  • ”& WHAT MORE?”

Steve Nickman:

  • “Bach on YouTube in a Dark Time”

Martheaus Perkins:

  • “Center, Texas”

Gessica Sakamoto Martini:

  • “Hunger Walking in the Courtyard”

Steven D. Schroeder:

  • “Townsfolk mutter to one another”

Steven Searcy:

  • “Stave Scenery”

Adam Strauss:

  • “Rose—Thew—Thorn”

Shaoni C. White:

  • “Swarm, Field”

Ranee Zaporski:

  • “Polite Topics of Conversation”

Cover image:
Relief showing the tip of a sunshade
Middle Kingdom ca. 2051-2030 B.C.
Open Access via The Met Museum (metmuseum.org)