Barely we own here“Here does not welcome us any longer”Mama purged out her shuddered voiceShrinking between her thighsAre verses of fear. “Who bears the sacrifice? The gods are ill”Father spread his dying palmsLike the morning spreading of a solitary palm tree under the advice of the wind. Here isn’t a home any longer;she’s become a…
Read MoreLost Tongue by Violette Taylor
Spanish left our family tongue a fewgenerations ago, it was buriedwith my great-grandmother as shetried to make her children more palatable I feel it finding its way back to methrough the friends I meetand the music with a beatI can’t help but try to sing I can’t help but wonder what storieswill never get to…
Read Morecarnations by Miranda Magaña
somehowcarnations seem to find mesix feet below and behind me,in crystal vases,on the namesake of the streeton my skin,in the inkand now, in the granite stonewhere i never thoughtwe’d have to meet. Miranda Magaña is a self-taught artist born and raised in Oxnard, California. She graduated UCLA in 2021, majoring in Spanish and Portuguese &…
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My Mother Eve by Mia Altamuro
Artwork by Andrea Miranda I am my Mother Eve’s child;I always want the one thingI can’t have. the entire world in front of me,the life I could live,and I want to feel you breathe on me,to love me for the fuck of it. I’m in a gardenwith everything I needsurrounding me,yet I am Eve’s daughter,…
Read MoreGirls in our shrines by Zakiyyah Dzukogi
forgive our artthat’s yet to come,we are girlsfrom our shrines,like the flowerbefore God,we’ll beat drumsfor prayerson our hands—wake in the terraced house,the cost of our poetry isn’ta thousand note Zakiyyah Dzukogi is the author of Carved (a poetry collection); winner of the Nigeria Prize for Teen Authors, 2021, a prize she had earlier won the…
Read MoreDis jOY Nt hIm by Winston TL
sob L.A. haze allays my heart hurt in a daze caused by a comet [Gone bye] brain prays to malignant stars haywire Moon! align it? for me and him!?! BLAH. AH AH. “I find you very attractive – a good and sweet person …
Read More7 cycles by Kamana Rai
1. The glass of chrysanthemums — my mother tells me, cut the leaves off or take out the leaves from the stems with your hands. गोदावरी – will stay fresh in a vase of water for weeks. 2. If you look after anything well, it will show signs of prospering. In this sense, relationships of…
Read MoreConcreted Words by Fadrian Bartley
The metal door slams constantlywith noisy keys jingled throughtiny holes. Behind the door of hadesheartbeats linger with despair,and held on to memories they once hadto catch the morning sun, Wretched state behind redemption,and sorrowful thought sitsbeside a bucket containtheir own uric acid. waited shamefully for expulsionof colon loose canal which stinks the air,Orange suits unable…
Read MoreDisguises by Christine Hsu
I’m going to be a luchador for Halloween this year.Is it cultural appropriation or not?I got this cool cat luchador mask in Mexico City on vacation.It’s black with blues trimming with whiskers and pointed ears.I was excited to see a Japanese wrestler in the ringTugging, tossing and tumbling around with the Mexican wrestlers.Ten years ago…
Read MoreEmmett Till by Jeffrey Caliedo
Jackson, Mississippi is two hours away from Money, and still, the soil can be heard weeping. Secluded and consumed by encroaching ivy fingers, the decomposing Bryant’s Market has become a sign of the times. A marker of the past. But there are bullet holes in his memorial. And the boy is still plummeting. The body…
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