July 2020
In this issue
Contents
Inventing Words
condifluoia/ˈkɒndɪfluːɪɑ/noun: condifluoia; plural noun: condifluoia 1. the specific scent of tea leaves inboiling water when it soaks in sixstrands of freshly grated ginger on thehand-shredder,..
Pirouettes in Bed
i’m drinking spring water in your bedroom naked head swept back and i can feel you watching my every move or memorizing my arms as..
Mr President
I need to tell you about the old man sitting cross-legged on the crackedconcrete outside the Life building lifting drowningants out of a puddle with..
Family Portrait
I. Pudgal, my grandmother explained, is the matter that sticksto your soul when you do a bad thing.Cloistered in the sunlight, stippled skin gleamingDidi probably..
StarLab 2020
One of my kids is crying because a girl in the other second grade class fainted during the experience: A mobile planetarium in the gym, harsh..
As if the zither wouldn’t quiver
As if the zither wouldn’t quiverVibrate its songThe reconciliation between various components of the familyThe doubtful connectionBetween the kiss of associationAnd loveThe drum double drummingOf..
Wild
“Like I was suddenly some safer form of fire”-Ada Limon Parallel Mustangs revving at an intersectionBack and forthLike a conversation Between Neanderthals listing their killsAround..
Once upon a February
I’m much more than a monthSo much longer than a dayI’m that which America fears to teachI’m more than the constitution will ever sayI’m in..
Lie Down
It’s okay to dieStanding upA beetle-eatenPine on the slopeOf Mt. Baldy You’re not aloneOne day you justLie down in the brownNeedle-hay that was youTo begin..
Elegy for Half Measures
I’m not about to say it’s anythingother than a coincidence, the factthat somebody in my group over twohundred miles from Bellinghamknows of Jeff Mixdorf, knows..
Dhaka
Hurt people, there is no forever.Hurt people, always remember.— Fuad Ahmed Buriganga River washes the feet of your sons,Meghna River bathes ankles of your daughters…
A Wal-mart at the end of the World
is spic and span; you could eat off the floorif there was a floor; there isn’t, justa huge hole you can’t see at first, as..
The Heart Asked Me to Please Take It Home
In a plastic container wrapped in ice packs,a human heart sat next to me on the plane.I queried the flight attendant about the heartin the..
Anthropology
My friend says that everythingis anthropology: chess playersin Tompkins Square, the lineof cars at Starbucks, preteen girlsfilming Tik Tok videos. But the young girl, baby..
In an Irish Pub, After a Funeral
It’s March. The earth is dirge-soft with daffodils. The rain goes through seven stages of grief. When I was a girl, the first daffodils I..