You’d show up in pajama pants and slippers to dig ditches for the old boy at the mic. He knew you’d always be an hour late, he says, and then you’d have to go get breakfast which took another hour, then another hour to eat it. Laughter. “Tomorrow, Charlie, […]
After ten years of unsuccessful siege, the Greeks, apparently, have gone, leaving a huge wooden horse in front of Troy. The Trojans approach, cautiously. For three days they discuss if it is better to bring the horse into the city or set it on fire. Tairis is among […]
Think of Susie Love and Silver Son, my aunt said. She spouted nonsense words, her eyes sightless. The news was on. A man said a pit bull ripped a boy apart on his way to school. Same day a guy grabbed a girl’s chest on the bus and […]
Download the PDF file . Selva Casal (b. 1930) is the author of fifteen books of poetry. A former lawyer and professor of sociology, Casal is inspired by her experiences working with people who have faced injustice. She resides in Montevideo, Uruguay. Jeannine Marie Pitas […]
Our girls were disappearing. Missing from back yards, bunk beds, and basketball courts. Missing on roller skates, tightropes, and milk cartons. The girls were disappearing, but not my girl, fuck no, hell no, not now, not ever. I said it over and over. I said it while I watched […]
i planted a camellia in the yard. i wanted to be a lady, not a war-ravaged rag, to cast down my lashes, let fall a light glove, put on red beads, patent-leather boots, i listen: are there explosions, does someone stomp the earth.... Lyudmyla Khersonska lives […]
There are two ways to hit a baseball. One is to put it where you want it; the other is to put it where it wants to go. Babe Ruth, the story goes, could put it where he wanted it. He stepped to the plate, pointed to the left […]
A Process Note In the series Textual Portraits, images of contemporary women emerge from historic words. The work begins with a photograph of a woman, often a scholar, artist, or student, who has made an impression on me. Based on our interaction and my knowledge of the woman, I […]
“Among couples who had a stillbirth, nearly 60 percent broke up within ten years, while close to half of couples who had a miscarriage broke up within a decade”- Amy Norton, Reuter’s Health, 2010 Because you are the prayer, today. Because you are the train ‘s […]
Adrienne Raphel’s debut collection of poetry, What Was It For, careens on the edges of nonsense—which are also the disquieting edges of nursery rhyme, riddle, and song. Its humor is by turns blunt as a groan and subtle as a sniff; “I like to go into the soggy […]
