September 2019
In this issue
Contents
We are Milkweed for Monarchs
In January 2019, the annual monarch butterfly count in California showed an 86% population decline from the previous year. Bradley Waters researches and reports on what could be done.
the aftermath
We begin to believe in the collapseof trees / sky folded like a hand,an hourglass wasting sand. Can we contain the catastrophe?The park is in..
Bangles
The Sukshma Series is a first-hand account of an educated woman of post-colonial India reflecting on how the social and political set-up of the country defined the status of an Indian woman.
After the Diagnosis: First Days in Greece
Thin sheaths of ashborn of forest firefallaround merest in my hairstick to sweaty skinRubbing eyesclouds my visionRubbing armsturns my skin greyLayer upon layerash fallsI stand pierced by..
Another Life
In another life, I was paintedOut of the picture, By the Table, Scummed up with oil layered likePremature common lilac leaves Peering down. I am sat next..
Rejection
The letter comes from a far countryon an early April evening, when the moon is fulland stars run quietly. The good earth, bored with the fecund promise..
Topiarius
A man in Derbyshire,grows trees into chairs.Oak & willow are tiedto forms, pruned to complyto templates that determinetheir utility & usagelike children bound bytheir parent’s..
Trial & Error
Sometimes late at nightwhen they’re done their roundsand I’m sure no one is listening,I speak to Sylvia Plath: You’ve died before I had time—we’re much..
I Want to Be Myself
Today a man, a woman, and a child much younger than me asked me who I wanted to be I responded with – Is that..
A Shadow is a Gentle Lover
The shadow is the ice melting down ravines of drowned hipbones, beadings strung in the sunlight. It rubs its head between two stones, peeling back..
De-parted
Train travel was slowly dying out like the art of writing letters. I didn’t care for such statements made by various people I knew. I..
Excuse Me, Sir, May We Invade Your Home?
For Roald DahlIn heaven, or wherever he may have gone Laszlo Oxbreast bound old and rare books. His work required the utmost caution and particularity,..
Postpartum
After an excruciating week of meetings in New York City, my husband was to arrive back home via bus. Noon sharp, he’d told me. He..
Violation
She’d been worried about her daughter all day. The little girl’s temperature had risen to 38° and she’d called the doctor. Now the child was..
You in the Dark
After school, you play with Mindy. She lives two houses away and has a big brother. He’s tall and lanky and if you knew the..