by Daniel Pecchenino
Every few years
I lose the plot.
What came before
is submerged
beneath what is,
and now becomes
the past’s new
point of departure. Continue reading
Two by Two
I Used to Play in Bands
by David R. DiSarro
There were always
sad women,
striped socks, tattoos,
the names of ex-husbands,
strained against
low cotton tops. Continue reading
A Woman Nurses on the Beijing Subway
by Bryn Homuth
A stop at Qianmen station—
passengers battle through turnstiles,
striding from platform and through doors,
some lucky, collapsing into a seat,
straphangers finding a hold
from a suspended row of grips. Lurching,
the subway glides as if through water,
an eel through a cavernous network
of coral tunnels. Riders sway
like the subaquatic drift of anemone. Continue reading
Irma the Practical
by Donna Miscolta
Irma clamps her mouth so that the pins press into her lips and the tiny metal heads tilt toward the roof of her mouth. She has never swallowed any pins, but she thinks of what it might feel like if she did. She removes them one by one, slipping them into the satin to hold the hem.
She smooths the wedding dress that is spread across the bed, and considers the different opportunities she will have that day to tell Donald she wants a divorce – or rather, that she will have a divorce. Despite the church, despite the social stigma, it is an American thing to do and she has been an American for nearly thirteen years now. Continue reading
Filed under Fiction
Jack Carries All He Can
by Kevin Brown
Faced with fire, I would forego the photo
albums—polaroids of birthday parties
and family trips to the beach held together
by yellowing tape—leave the quilt my
grandmother made, even financial files
for retirement. Doug and I watch Continue reading
Filed under Poetry
Hawaii Pacific Review 