A Big Red Island Christine H. Chen __________ Behind the carved mahogany table Tang tai-tai the matchmaker scanned the girl up and down before telling her to sit with a tone that cut short any form of protest. Tang tai-tai squinted behind her thick tortoise shell glasses as if to…
Read MoreKilling the Ingénu Valerie Tirado __________ To escape our blood-soaked land,we rather flock on frays of papier-mâché rafts swallowed whole by tumultuous waves than live where the ironclad hungerfor the metallic taste of censorship. How to distill home from homeland when—as a boy—I was stripped of my mother,handed a rifle & taught to kill…
Read MoreEven the Rocks Turn Away When We Look at Them R Rice __________ She wakes to find herself far from home, from family, the tent sweltering under glass-hard sky. Those stirring around her, all of them, on their way, they hope, somewhere else. For a moment she’s still, lost in the moving of her body’s own…
Read MoreIn the Strawberry Mountains Sam Olson __________ Grandmother, I know you don’t read the newsany longer, but in case you heard, it’s true–they want to send 30,000 peopleto a camp called Gitmo. Campingis what we did come June. I was a camper,once, then a counselor. Find a holeon a creek?…
Read MoreRoad Song Jed Myers __________ I’ve ground my teeth to an aching, jawsore from a long clench while I searchedfor a road out of a war, no knowing which side I was on. And I dreamed a crossing—safe passage, no gate, no screamed inquisitions at gunpoint between wired-off halves of land— not…
Read MoreMary McColley __________ Ajnabia I am remembering the open skies of August, how I lay at nightwatching a city creep with light, how I lostmyself in the arched stone halls of necklaces, spices, lambs’ heads how I felt so small, that I could hide between the ridges of datesHow my…
Read MoreIsra Hassan __________ A Ballad for Those Playing Dead dangerous mezzanineshoney spilt suddenlieshouse of sand practiceWestern exit strategiesgrim blessed reapera viral hum operathieving empirea repear’s balladan obscene drought __________ Star Light, Star Bright circa March 2025, SpaceX Rocket Explodes Is the satellite’s rawmaterials happyto be returning?Did the satellite’s rawmaterials missthe…
Read MoreBelow Deck Steve Gerson __________ I am an American, because my grandparents suffered through a voyage below deck. They roiledin tempests. They ate grub-infested cornmeal. They traveled without an itinerary other than anyland would improve their prior status as second-class field workers digging potatoes out of rocks.What would await them?…
Read MoreExiles A. Z. Foreman __________ Through dusk’s torn veil, where borders bleed to none,A thousand shadows shuffle, lose their names.The road is ash, the sky a loaded gun,Its stars reciting grief in silent claims.No gate holds fast, no wall can bar the weightOf feet that drag the heart through mud…
Read MoreCumulonimbus Kathryn Silver-Hajo __________ Mama used to sing to Sami and me at night, sounds of yearning emerging from deep in her chest like a trapped owl was trying to escape. Most mornings, Baba walked us to school, and he’d say he needed quiet so he could plan his day.…
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