Issue 3.2


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.

Editorial Introduction

Guadalupe “Pita” Amor, trans. Jeffrey Oliver:

  • Three Poems

Aaron Belz:

  • “Nameless”

Tuhin Bhowal:

  • “Sometimes Always Almost Nothing”

Justin Bigos:

  • ”Fix Your Hearts or Die”

Thanh Bui:

  • “Part two of the eighteenth episode of Clifford the Big Red Dog”

Stuart Cooke:

  • "Possibility”

Peach Delphine:

  • Two Poems

Romy Rhoads Ewing:

  • “anointing of sickos”

Ivan Franko, trans. A.Z. Foreman:

  • Two Poems

Cal Freeman:

  • “Riding Mower”

Venya Gushchin:

  • “aubade in hexameters mostly”

Thomas Jackson:

  • "that Feeling when”

Lee Johnson:

  • “hell is laced”

Robert Frede Kenter:

  • “X-Ray (Berlin Hologram)”

Dustin King:

  • "Foibles"

Robert Krut:

  • “Writing the Bible’s Footnotes”

Caroline Lazarova:

  • “Ekphrasis for Red Gladioli, 1906”

Nadia López García, trans. by Coline Ferrant:

  • “SACRED WOMAN”

J G Orudjev:

  • Three Pieces

Harry Palacio:

  • “Obelisk”

Amanda W. Powell:

  • “Bareback on the Ox”

Eric T. Racher:

  • “In which the author zimzumishly…”

Dawn Stahura:

  • “For what it’s worth”

Miguel Otero Silva, trans. by Chris Holdaway:

  • Two Poems

Joshua St. Claire:

  • Two Poems

Glenn Taylor:

  • “Editor’s Note”

jp thorn:

  • “re: sand”

Carmen Vascones, trans. by Alexis Levitin

  • “A Mirror of Salt”

Elena Zhang:

  • “Streetcar Funeral”

Zhang Zhihao, trans. by Yuemin He:

  • Two Poems

Dialogues — two poets in conversation

Venya Gushchin & Robert Frede Kenter

Robert Krut & Aaron Belz

Justin Bigos & Thomas Jackson

Cover image graciously provided by
J G Orudjev (“Inverse”).

Voices — poets reading their own work

Glenn Taylor reads “Editor’s Note”

Caroline Lazarova reads “Ekphrasis for Red Gladioli, 1906”

Thanh Bui reads “Part two of the eighteenth episode of Clifford the Big Red Dog”