Rattle #91, Spring 2026: Tribute to Rebel Poets

The Spring 2026 issue of Rattle leans into a simple question: what does it mean to rebel on the page? Sometimes rebellion is political. Sometimes it’s formal. Sometimes it’s simply paying attention so hard that an ordinary noun turns strange. In the open section, a senior-living bus makes its rounds, an empty ballfield shows up like a prayer, and someone applies (quite seriously) to be your property’s mystical, bearded, flute-playing resident hermit. There’s milk, an armrest, Tuesdays—small things that refuse to stay small.

We’re also debuting Still Life, a new photo-essay series by Katie Dozier, beginning with Ted Kooser in rural Nebraska. It’s not a glamor shoot—more like an honest look at the tools and textures of a poet’s life: the workshop, the handwriting, the artifacts, the moments that add up to a voice. Come for the rebels; stay for the close-up.

Open Poetry
The Senior Living Bus Goes to the Churches on Sundays by Fleda Brown
I Am Applying to Be Your Property’s Mystical, Bearded, Flute-Playing, Resident Hermit by Erik Campbell
Decomposition by Christiana Doucette
Milk by Frank Dullaghan
The Lull of Tuesdays by Krystle Herdy
The Armrest by Terry Jude Miller
They Came to Learn by Gregory Orr
In Detroit, Nonfiction, by Ron Riekki
No U by Chris Ritter
[empty ballfield] and Other Haiku by Greg Schwartz
My Mother’s Reincarnation by Saudamini Siegrist
Please, No Black Guys by Glenn Taylor
Doing It in the Dark by Josh Tvrdy
Next Time by Stuart Watson
Never Use Your Fists ’Til Your Feet Get Tired … by Lew Watts
The Island of the Day Before by Jane Zwart

Still Life
The Builder by Katie Dozier
The First Time, A Muse, A Witnessing, and Top Hat by Ted Kooser

Tribute to Rebel Poets
Where I Come From— by Assemay
A Working Class Villanelle by Rachel Custer
What Growing Up Poor Taught Me by Daniel Donaghy
Capitalism’s Still Not as Good as the First … by Joshua C. Gaines
Kind of Poet by Tony Gloeggler
Brought Out of the Luggage Are Souvenirs … by Hamed Hosseini
Rain by Seth Jones
Elegy for a Canceled Poet by Aisha Khalid
Twin: Muslim Prayer by Tamara MC
Twigs by Oak Morse
“… I Heard Someone Call Women’s Shoes Wearable …” by Kate Peper
Revolt or Rot, Lover! by Brian Potts
LGBQTPB&J Manifesto by Kaz Sussman
Why My “T” Sticks by Pam Ward