Jul 27
Anasazi by Tacey M. Atsitty How can we die when we’re already prone to leaving the table mid-meal like Ancient Ones gone to breathe elsewhere. Salt sits still, but pepper’s gone rolled off in a rush. We’ve practiced dying for a long time: when we skip dance or town, when we chew. We’ve rounded out …
Jul 26
On Teaching My Son How to Mourn by Khaty Xiong I tell him to touch his toes. He reaches for them in a squat.He stabs them with his little fingers. One toe. Two toes.Then we say our letters, spell out all the sounds we will deliver because the death of a child is no small death.I …
Jul 25
The End of Exile by Solmaz Sharif As the dead, so I cometo the city I am of.Am without. To watch play out around meas theater — audience as the dead are audience to the life that is not mine.Is as notas never. Turning down Shiraz’s streetsit turns out to be such a faraway thing. …
Jul 24
A Palestinian Might Say by Naomi Shihab Nye What?You don’t feel at home in your country,almost overnight?All the simple thingsyou cared about,maybe took for granted. . .you feelinsulted, invisible?Almost as if you’re not there?But you’re there.Where before you mingled freely. . .appreciated people who weren’tjust like you. . .divisions grow stronger.That’s what “chosen” and “unchosen” …
Jul 23
Guts, an excerpt by Jane Wong I enter a room.A cat vomits as if to say welcome home. Scatteredbones on the floor, tiles of fur and fever:welcome. Outside, the parks are rinsed clean. Grass spraysacross my window. This clean violencefor the Green and Livid. · Nothing I say leavesthis room. Not a foot, not a …
