May 2020
In this issue
Contents
Isaiah Berlin Museum
Only barbarians are notcurious about where they comefrom, how they came to be wherethey are, where they appear to begoing, whether they wish to gothere,..
The Remuneration
1928: My grandfather, a civil servantin British India, surveyed Sirsa District on camel back. Irrigated fields reaped oats and barley in autumn,mustard and grams in..
Sometimes I Feel Most Alone in the Subway
The sound of a warm body for a cold nightcan easily be mistaken for the hum of love,and maybe it was, for a second.This is..
The Easy Way Out
I rearrange my grandmother in loose-leaf pages,each poem a memory, a sterling trinket in a felt pouchI keep by my side, often touching it throughoutthe..
Hand-Me-Downs
You stand nakedalone in your roomlike a cradle.You step outinto the empty woods.You’re flying then a person appears, then anotheruntil a crowd is around you.Without..
First cut
Elijahu, a word please. She leaps from the birth bed faster than a woman who has spent the last 40 hours sweating, heaving, grunting, shifting..
The Best Stories
New York City in the winter is a difficult place for a three-year-old. The sidewalks are small, packed with snow and tourists, and slippery with..
Novena
I.Buy the lotion. Buy the oil. Take the homeopathic vitamin mixtures. Drink the tinctures. Sweat lodge. Meditation. Cleanses. Wheatgrass so thick you choke. Teas so..
Us Kids
In Winter the teachers stop patrolling the school grounds. They stand in huddles, hands wrapped around steaming mugs, finding relief in the alcove out of..
Perennials
In the garden. It looks like snow, a surreal May frost, but the sun slaps my winter-paled skin as I hunch over the tiny growths..