Dawn fades in when I least expect it. Where are the books that held me once, my brave invective, the pictures forming in the darkroom? Memory leaves with her usual lack of meaning, a darkness with … Continued
Translated from Hebrew by Tal Nitzan and Ilya Kaminsky. It’s not a green bench in the children’s room It’s a crocodile It’s not a crocodile It’s the future: here’s the slow shift of his eyes here’s … Continued
We thank you for your interest, an urge from within, a special something. A sea of metaphysical books before they amounted to clairvoyance. An ether inside a higher ether. Two sensitivities to one whole and a dimension of your dormant … Continued
Sometimes you turn to poetry the way you turn to another country. Everything is better, more humane. You notice things you wouldn’t otherwise. You notice things. Watching gardeners trim branches for birds to fly through reminds you of … Continued
Translated from Spanish by Curtis Bauer I fell in love with a boy when I was seven years old. I could have fallen in love with a girl, but in my school the boys and girls were separated, so I … Continued
And later, in the empty room upstairs AAAAAAAAAAAthat will stay empty because it’s a lookout AAAAAAAAAAAJames and I are staring at a cardinal in a tree and I say AAAAAAAAAAAhe’s so red and James says … Continued
Of Senegambia and seven, she should have been of the not-to be-taken, the not-high price, for a not-prime boy’s a girl of the unsuitable labor (birth not work)—and that years away. (Some of the captured, their spirits: … Continued
It used to settle on the crowns of trees unevenly, so that gravity or a breeze could make a fringe fall down, the fluttering particles meeting their two- dimensional shadows, off- white occluding off-white. Children could … Continued
On February 21, 2015, my brother and I had a rare musical experience: we watched a band that we love perform a song in an otherwise empty room, which is as close as you can get, in life, to how … Continued
How much can you do with one piece of paper— creasing, tearing, adding volume with air? You can make a mythic sea monster toppling a tall ship in high, high seas, as my seatmate in 30C, in … Continued
The boats return Heavy from cities and distance. The crickets fall asleep. A child listens to the hollow of a conch. Perhaps it is the moment for another trip At the bow, for certain, the … Continued
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
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 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
—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
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
Translated from Chinese by Jennie Chia-Hui Chu My big brother Da Ge, who was the son of my father’s first wife when they were still living in the country, was much older than me. We weren’t close. He spoke … Continued
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
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
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