“Dis here Memphis It may go; Floods may drown it; Tornado blow;” Sterling A. Brown, “Memphis Blues” Susie knew how to get her FEMA check. She’d already called the hotline the day after the flood before we brought over the Shop-Vac and got the fans going. Her grandkids were upstairs: Derek on the couch […]
Issue 92
Jordan Durham: Kodachrome
A friend holds out a picture and before turning it over says: This is the heart suspended at the exact moment of impact. He flips it, and I see over the fence a fawn hanging, pierced through a post and expectant like she still can make the leap. Framed far enough away that her blood […]
Ken’ichi Sasō: Suspense Translated by Joe DeLong and Noriko Hara
Living things are a real mystery. Who could have left behind this much stuff? Their “symbols” intrigue me: <X> <Q> <?> <!> <Regret> <Top Secret> <Global> <Wall> I’ve catalogued my finds by provenance, by roundness and squareness. Curves and dots are scattered throughout. […]
Mary-Alice Daniel: Mother, Part 73
The photographs I return to when I feel I could hate my mother: In one she is holding me up to prove how well she lined my eyes with kohl to protect them from the desert dryness. I am a baby with a pink Lamborghini who is selfish with birthday cake, but still refuses to […]
Jiwon Choi: Jane Austen, Reconsider
writing me into your landscape of petticoats and pianofortes, please be advised, my party manners are unfortunate I will drink all your wine and double dip. Invite me to tea if you can forego all your layers of etiquette. Don’t you see I would fare better in something Elmore Leonard? Knocking knees with […]
Jiwon Choi: I Pay My Book Fine
I have kept you Ko Un for days longer than the iron bound librarian allows you are a poet of poets because magpies sleep on your shoulders through winter and even a millet shortage uprising cannot awaken them. You write with the ink of your veins about travelers you’ve met on old village […]