October 2021
In this issue
Contents
Two Stories by Allison A. deFreese
Two pieces of flash fiction by poet and translator, Allison A. deFreese.
LeftRight
It was the year of strange weather. Whirring blades of Chinooks above him, he rehearsed a monologue sometimes, in preparation for a testimony he felt would be demanded, soon.
Signature
The first letter of Georgia’s name was supposed to be a tribute to a dead great grandmother on her father’s side that no one remembered.
Foreignness
This personal essay by Dina Hendawi explores the dilemma of feeling foreign everywhere, including the place we call ‘home.’
The Map of my Mother Tongue
Damilola Oyedele’s essay explores language as both a barrier and a tether. Her accent and diction – influenced by the various Nigerian languages and dialects she speaks – shapes her interactions as an immigrant in the United States and South Africa, and tethers her to Nigeria, her home country.
Sing of Life: Revisioning Tagore’s Gitanjali by Priya Sarukkai Chabria
A review of Priya Sarukkai Chabria’s “Sing of Life: Revisioning Tagore’s Gitanjali” by Maitreyee Chowdhury.
Jayanta Mahapatra: A Reader edited by Durga Prasad Panda
A review of “Jayanta Mahapatra: A Reader” by Maitreyee Chowdhury.
The House I Grew Up In
My father built the house with rocks; my mother threw them. Snow came through the holes she made. She watched us freeze.
Drought
You can tell me nothing, because I am nobody to you. Yet once I made the rainbow for you, and when it rained I kept you dry.
On Princess May Road
Long familiar wooden bench Friday night streets Shiraz, Shiraz, Shiraz
A Five Gallon Water Can
A Five Gallon water can filled to the brim, I once learned, is about the density of the human body –blood, intestines, muscle and bone.
Prison Bullfrog
He usually writes about his routine rising before 5:00 to weak coffee scrubbing floors, painting walls his one hour in the exercise yard, or a dream from the night before a fishing trip with his father long dead.
Vases
The first time you decide to buy a vase you will know you have a home to bring it to
Change of Season
In mid April, for two short weeks the Magnolia breaks its blossoms over the deck each of its eyes open wide