By Laura Sweeney
In the midst of the monsoon
and the thousand year flood
my Nica nostalgia rises. Continue reading
To Nica, With Love
The Tallest Man (1681-1759)
By Nels Hanson
In a cave in Abington, Pennsylvania,
dwarf and hunchback, once common
sailor, Benjamin Lay lived alone. No
thing grown or made by slave labor
would he touch, instantly he walked
away from any supper if he learned
his host owned black slaves. Only Continue reading
Filed under Poetry
Object Permanent
by Jaimie Gusman
It is Tuesday. It is Sunday.
It is napkins and Windex
and garbage bags on Monday.
When I arrive the oven
is already on, burning
a place for her to stand. Continue reading
Filed under Poetry
Gauze
by Kevin O’Connor
The farmer had grown black oranges,
some with faces,
others with horns,
but all were bathed in light.
The clouds overhead his field
raced contrapuntally. Continue reading
Filed under Poetry
Harness
By Brian Druckenmiller
The uncle jerry-rigs a leash for Walter, his hamster, using fishing line and the rubber band bracelet his niece wove for him a month before she drowned. The bands have begun to wither, some singeing away like slow dynamite fuses, and the colors have dulled—even the once vibrant teal, his niece’s favorite.
“Teal is my favorite, too,” he remembers saying as she sat cross-legged on her bedroom carpet, alive, fashioning a fishtailed bracelet with her rubber band loom. Using a long plastic hook like a dental tool, she pulled teal on top of black on top of gold on top of teal. Continue reading
Filed under Fiction
