Category: 23.2

  • Brumation

    Maryam A. Ghafoor I read anotherpoem written by a white person about race. On a walk, I look  down and see not a lake, not a reflection of myself, but this snake we found, black and green, white garter, curledinto itself for warmth, half-tucked into a pileof leaves on the sidewalk. Not a great choice, I think, and don’t…

  • Across The Atlantic, the Smoke Reached Us

    By Wasima Khan By the time the second tower fell, the world had already changed. The air itself had thickened, as if something massive had broken in the sky and drifted across the Atlantic to settle even in the damp autumn streets of our Dutch seaside city. I was a teenager then, old enough to…

  • Out of the Shadow of Clipboards: Understanding Autistic Cognition

    by J.M.C. Kane House RulesThe psychologist says, “Play naturally,” as if anything natural can happen under fluorescent lights with a woman holding a clipboard six feet away, timing something.There are house rules here. Look up when prompted. Imitate on cue. Stack, don’t sort. Points deducted for gradients.My son kneels in front of the toy bin.…

  • Death Is a Gambling Man

    by Brandyce Ingram       “I am dying.” His comically obvious words were punctuated by syllables like the title of a film, perhaps in an effort to convince himself that it was all a show. Just another climax to just another movie. He worshipped outlaws, the broad-shouldered with hidden holsters, Bogarts and Waynes, high rollers and sharpshooters,…

  • HAIL MARYAM

    by Safa Hijazi Kãf-Ha-Ya-’Aĩn- Ṣãd. كٓهيعٓصٓI. On the floor, I wake to a nightly impulse; I listen to Surat Maryam then Ave Maria Then Surat Maryam again. Hail Mary, Hail Mary I kneel at the edge of my bookcase. Our Lady of Lebanon stares at me. Mary? Can you hear me? Is it wrong to…

  • GENDER ZOO

    by Hali Sofala-Jones “We envision a world where wildlife and humans flourish together.”–Zoo Atlanta, Vision StatementSometimes I wonderif the little girls from that dayasked their mothers whythey couldn’t go inside the restroom–the one marked with a bald figure in a dress, pointing the way–the shape I’d been born into,and still, never quite enough. Do they…

  • Dream: Voiced Strong Through Static

    by Reynie Zimmerman You’re a guest on a famous podcast. I’m listeningafter reading my poetry in a large auditorium. The host asks about my work; you respond,It’s all fictional. The podcast studiois gold and bright, an array of audio equipmentin sight. You sit with the host on the same sideof a desk. You tell the…

  • THE QUEEN OF MOLOKA’I

    Kirby Michael Wright A Snapshot of My Grandmother’s Life       Brownie’s on horseback. The ratta-tat-tat of a seaplane spooks her mare, causing them to charge into roadside kiawe. Brownie pulls back hard on the reins. She chose Bella over the jeep because riding makes her feel mighty. She’s a hair over five feet, but up here…

  • Hostess

    By Lilah Webb       He’s wheeled in and he screams. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think he was afraid. But you do. He’s happy to see you. Even if he doesn’t know who you are.      “James,” he says. You pretend not to know why he’s taken to calling your father by his middle name. The…

  • Judas II

    By Charlotte Bruckner He says he has a stigmata and I know he means astigmatism but in my mind I am already pinning him to the cross. He says at night he sees every light like an apocalypse, like the end of days. Sitting next to him in the car with the world streaking around…