by Apryl Skies
Akamu, the fisher king
whose name knows no age,
only the touch
of man to earth,
tide and bind
He crouches at shore
with line and hook
held as moon against
an ocean’s abandoned sky Continue reading
Akamu, the Fisher King
Filed under Poetry
Seeds
by Sandra Sidman Larson
I walk by a garden pool
where water lilies glide
slowly with the afternoon breeze,
showing off their creamy faces.
Once in a fit of rage I tore
alameda vines I’d grown
off my back yard fence.
Someone else lives there now, Continue reading
Filed under Poetry
Bouncing the Porpis
by Charles Harper Webb
We’re bouncing The Porpis, / Bouncing The Porpis,
Bouncing The Porpis, / That is what he likes.
I made the song up for my son—porp (derived
from Shakespeare’s fretful porpentine) being
the fullness of human emotion—fear, rage, hunger,
need for love and diaper-changing—he conveyed
in cries, shrieks, coos, and general fuss
as I bounced, at 3 a.m., on waves of sleep. Continue reading
Chasing After Papang
By Rebecca Mabanglo-Mayor
My mother is two years younger than my eight-year-old daughter when the Japanese attack the Philippines. She is outside in the early December sunshine, playing with her five- and three-year-old sisters and my grandfather’s sister. Somewhere inside a clapboard house nearby, my grandmother rubs her pregnant stomach, her mind on what time her husband will come home from his daily patrol. A common day for Wardville, the small neighborhood where dependents of the Philippine Scouts and US Army live and sleep. Continue reading
Filed under Nonfiction
The Thing about Dying
by Jeff Tigchelaar
Today on a remote trail I encountered
a man, and as we were passing he said
Beautiful morning
and I said Yes it is
and he said I bet
you didn’t think you’d die today
and I said No I didn’t but
it would happen this way, wouldn’t it
Filed under Poetry
