@danajaye
i’m the little parakeet girl her caged and useless beat her flight of wings i’m the fire breathing kitten feather green and flame baby panther dragon scaly cat the way she purrs you back again i’m the … Continued
poetry
The Denison Homestead
Caring is a disease passed on My grandpa stood here and my dad imagined him doing so, and I am here to pay my respects to the love my dad had for him Buy a tee shirt … Continued
You Whom They Border
you border crosser in this simulation you constantly slip and call one border by the other’s name the names aren’t straight inside of you and you conflate one with two because you still yearn for another border … Continued
St. Augustine Beach ||| FLARE
—FL, our nation’s oldest city When my father saw her sunbathing her lean body that would one day push me from it, over and over,maybe he knew in an instanthis bohemian life had ended. Knew from the string-tied birdsfastened around … Continued
Up Up
The elocution lessons have been a great success! It is a matter of biting and swallowing. Clean bites and frequent sorrows. It’s so terrible—nothing is the god of me. I’m a grassy pit, I’m organized around nothing, a … Continued
Why Not Minot
The welcome arch read Only the Best Come North & my parents laughed tongue-in-cheek at another cross-country Air Force move. In fifth grade, I learned about America & the Dakotas & the Cold War & elections as Reagan … Continued
First Period
Brave Mrs. Kenley turns her back on the first grade, and like a grass fire, from raw blade to raw blade, enmity spreads. Mr. Hawkins twists paperclips around his knuckles. Mrs. Thompson and Mrs. Hall sit at their … Continued
White Deer
I saw the white deer in the clearing. I lowered my bow. That planets don’t collide on a more regular basis is one of the wonders of, say, sleeping through the night. The white deer bent its head, browsed … Continued
Tough Stain ||| The Rubbertop Review
A tea stain can be removed, I’ve heard, by pouring boiling water from three feet up. This is how rivers began, with a sound like infamy, like bantam waves in a backyard canal. I am not safe for fabrics. I … Continued
Separate State ||| The Diagram
The family two docks down, their chatter straining over the talk radio blaring, in-laws, who never had kids, warning relative’s kids, “Too close, kids.” Me on my dock thinking No kids, so that’s the reason the kids are too close, but no breaks. The in-laws: “Stop it. Stop horsing around.” “Oh, go ahead, fall … Continued
Chemistry: The Poetry Issue
Some thoughts on Chemistry. 1. I’m the kid who loved Chemistry for the wrong reasons. I was dreamily somewhat interested in what we were studying, but I wasn’t very good in the lab. I probably dropped pipettes and fumbled beakers; … Continued
Untitled ||| The Common
Translated by Martha Cooley and Antonio Romani My father’s bookcase was divided by nationalities of the authors. “The French ones,” my mother would say with some solemnity, indicating the most considerable sector, and perhaps the one most congenial to … Continued
Mrs. Lynch Talks of Mary McCormick, the Girl Who Accused Three Priests of Seducing Her
I’ve known little bitches like her all my life, their noses and butts stuck so high in the air you’d think St. Peter himself had goosed her. Haven’t I seen her mooning after the fathers like a kitten wanting nothing … Continued
“And Then What America, And Then What?”
—MILTON KESSLER What if California wasn’t the end of possibility? Gleaming out past Alcatraz and Coronado— someplace real to reach, if only you could walk across the water. Forget Manifest Destiny. What is ever manifest? What is destined? Today … Continued
Self-Portrait with Moving Truck
One year into the twentieth century, eight orchid hunters landed on the shores of the Philippines intent on wresting orchids from their marshy homes. As soon as I could talk, I wanted to be a collector, but of … Continued
Final Cutoff Notice
When my father broke parole and went back to prison, my face widened with red pimples of hearsay. For hours, I leaned on the refrigerator door, tasting rotten food. I slipped in the woods, stropped a buck knife, let go. … Continued
Jean Berko Gleason
Gleason developed the WUG Test in 1958: This is a WUG. Now there is another one. There are two of them. There are two _______. This man zibs. A man who zibs is a _______. The children made the … Continued
Lament for the Death of Ignacio Sánchez Mejías
Translated from Spanish by Pablo Medina 1. GORING AND DEATH At five in the afternoon. It was five sharp in the afternoon. A boy brought the white sheet at five in the afternoon. A basket of lime … Continued
A Rottenness Begins in His Conduct
The candidate has a spoilage in his head, an icky bit, a creep that chews for him alone when stuffing up the local grub. At every stop, he shovels in the pies and dogs, the beer, … Continued
Amy Pretends This Is Old Penn Station
The way she wears her sweater is so Sunday. If her parents were here she’d say why don’t you go watch Dancing With the Stars. It is every generation’s job to feel deprived. If she had kids she’s scared of … Continued