Philly Poetry Chapbook Review is pleased to feature Winshen Liu’s poem “August Peaches” as our second featured chapbook poem of Issue 9: Summer 2025. You can find more poetry in their chapbook, Paper Money, published in August by Diftwood Press.
August Peaches
We must eat the peaches today
for they are about to burst.
We left them like still
art until they softened
our longing
and stored each sunset.
But now, it is late
summer and no one
else is coming to visit.
In our palms, they crump
into twice-sliced
stars, pressed in
on the edges, sluicing
blushed juice. One brush
with water might bruise
its furred flesh,
we might dive
to kiss the counter, lick
the lines on our fingers,
and suck and suck
every ounce oozed
out. The first bite
will set off
its nectared geyser—
bright and quick,
tartsweet meteor,
chasing the inch
of our chins
our tongues cannot reach.
(This poem was first published by Electric Lit and is reprinted with the author’s permission.)
About the Poem
I wanted to sit with a particular end-of-summer indulgence, where a host has saved specialty foods to welcome visiting friends and family–fancy chocolate, favorite sodas, a certain snack. When the string of summer visitors comes to an end, those items left in the kitchen are no longer reserved. They’re no longer off-limits. Suddenly, there is almost an imperative for the host to consume the leftovers, especially when they are perishable like peaches. Since peaches often need to sit and ripen, they embody an accumulated longing and this poem entertains what the release could feel like.
Author Bio
Winshen Liu’s poetry has appeared in Cincinnati Review, Electric Literature, The Malahat Review, and The Rumpus, among others. She is grateful to the University of Mississippi faculty for their mentorship and the de Groot Foundation for supporting her work. In addition to writing, she loves long-distance train travel, baking and bakeries, and stickers.
From Paper Money
Winshen Liu’s Paper Money is a sensory and sparse exploration of grief, as well as longing, money, and longing for money in the context of diaspora. Selected by Diane Seuss for the 2024-2025 Adrift Chapbook Contest, these poems are full of foodways, Taiwanese customs, and language play. Paper Money is ultimately about grief, both elegy for the death of the speaker’s grandfather, and the loss and longing one feels for home.
Contents
Chapbook Poem: The Blessed Knot by Li-Young Lee
“A well-made poem is a knot, but not a tangle. The well-made knot of a poem can disentangle readers from illusion, to free them from confusion. Poetry is a form of disillusionment.” Read the July Chapbook Poem by Li-Young Lee along with words from the poet.
“This work is an archive of my attempts to become more familiar with who I am, and why I am here, to immerse myself in these ancient spiritual questions…” Check out five poems and five images by Laynie Browne along with a few words from the poet.
Book Excerpt: Creating Space by Lisa Sewell
“Yoga, the walks, and the writing became a daily exercise in paying attention—to the world, to the bodies in the world around me and to my own body…” Read the Excerpt Poem of the Month for July 2025 by Lisa Sewell along with words from the poet.
“My poetry tries to examine … the difference between the lives we live inside ourselves and the lives we expose to other people.” Read five poems by William Doreski along with a few words from the poet.
July ’25: Poetry Readers Wanted
Read a note from editor Aiden Hunt about PCR’s Summer poetry and new poetry reader opportunities brought by our growing original poetry submissions.
Four Poems by allison whittenberg
“I grew up as a film buff and I loved reading Hollywood Babylon. Over the years, I have learned to separate the truth from the myths.” Read four poems by allison whittenberg along with a few words from the poet.
Chapbook Poem: August Peaches by Winshen Liu
“I wanted to sit with a particular end-of-summer indulgence, where a host has saved specialty foods to welcome visiting friends and family–fancy chocolate, favorite sodas, a certain snack.” Read a poem from Winshen Liu’s chapbook Paper Money along with words from the poet.
Book Excerpt: Cheesecake Factory by Max McDonough
“This poem lives in the weirdness of the suburban mall spaces a lot of us grew up visiting (or loitering in!), places that feel like they could be anywhere and nowhere at once.” Read a poem from Max McDonough’s chapbook along with words from the poet.
Three Poems by Alexandra Meyer
“Love had made me stronger in a lot of ways, but also showed me the weakest parts of myself that were left crystallized for him to see. This was much like wood morphing into rock during the petrification process.” Read three poems by Alexandra Meyer along with words from the poet.
Three Poems by Kristiane Weeks-Rogers
“Anchored by sensory detail, the poem journeys between childhood safety and adult experience in a canyon town shaped by rivers and monsoons. … This poem is a meditation on time, tastes, and tenderness of memory.” Read three poems by Kristiane Weeks-Rogers along with words from the poet.
Chapbook Poem: The Seventh Age of Shakespeare’s Father by Scott LaMascus
“This poem hit me hard last winter, sitting a moment near my late father, as our family was trying to absorb the meaning of his ALS diagnosis … I wondered, if ‘all the world’s a stage,’ what role had I just been assigned?” Read the featured Chapbook Poem of the Month for September 2025 along with words from the poet.
Book Excerpt: Landscape with footprints in ash by Selma Asotić
“When I want to sound smart, I say things like: a poet is one who leaves. When I accept that I’m not very smart, mostly just perplexed and a little scared, I write poems about ghosts and circle farms.” Read a poem from Asotić’s new book, Say Fire, along with words from the poet.
“All of my encounters with the U.S. healthcare system follow the protocols of the ridiculous. This poem, couched in the conventions of the contemporary sonnet, explores my latest, decisive encounter with a doctor’s office.” Read three poems by Robin Arble along with words from the poet.
September ’25: Best of the Net Nominations
Editor Aiden Hunt announces Philly Chapbook Review’s Best of the Net 2026 anthology nominations in this editor’s note and provides links to the nominated poems.
Verses of Mourning: in the aftermath by Jessica Nirvana Ram
“[Ram] presents a revealing and heartbreaking collection that asks the reader to think about what they remember the most about those they have lost.” Read Alex Carrigan’s full review.
“This poem reckons with our capitalist, product-driven society to ask people why disabled stories are only relevant if they portray the ‘other’ overcoming trauma to become abled people’s inspiration porn.” Read three poems by Makena Metz along with words from the poet.