by Susana H. Case
That day you accidentally locked us out
of our rental car on some road leaving
the Yucatan—Freud would have said it was
Quintana Roo
Filed under Poetry
Full Circle
by MK Punky
At his funeral
they say he came full circle
his life a grand improvisation
swirling past bel canto opera
to Korean hip-hop
making unscheduled stops at unmarked stations
slumming with the dregs and meeting presidents
Forrest Gumping his way to freedom
Filed under Poetry
Bluesology
by Loukia Borrell
When my brother was getting cancer treatment, he’d drive to his townhouse after the appointments, get sick and spend the rest of the night on his sofa, curled up and shivering. It was always the same. Get injected, drive home, get sick, curl up and shiver. On these nights, I would go to Andy’s place, just to be nearby and get him whatever he needed. He always asked for blankets, so I would pile several over him, but nothing was enough to stop his shaking.
Filed under Nonfiction
Simulacrum of a Weeping Willow
by MaryAnne Hafen
My mountains bleed into my sky
on paper, and it looks wrong,
but it’s like real life;
virgo at summer’s end.
The world is too strange
to paint as it really is, too filled
with poorly pruned trees.
Filed under Poetry
The Tourist
by M. Anne Kala`i
Naiwi’s first and only visit to the mainland nearly burned him down. Desperate to escape the island that knew him better than he knew himself, he sold what valuables he could scrape together from distracted vacationers and his cash-strapped family, and lit out for California. Continue reading
Filed under Fiction
Hawaii Pacific Review 