Customer Service

by Elliott Gish

The customer has hair on his knuckles. That is the first thing I notice when I look up and see him standing in front of the service desk, his hands resting gently on its edge. The hair is black and thick, growing in wild tufts like those on the tails of wild pigs.

“Excuse me, miss. If I might have a moment of your time.” Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Parau

by Teatuahere Teiti-Gierlach

when I speak of colonization
I’m not referring to ships with white sails
or sandpaper men and their infection Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under Poetry

The Taste of Dirt

by Nancy Stricklen-Juneau

My mom’s 13th birthday gift was a kitten.  Gray and white striped, she named it “Tabi”.

Tabi is important to this story, because, of all the things my mom was forced to leave behind, her name, her belongings, her friends, Tabi was what she remembered, even as an old woman, when dementia’s eraser wiped out most of her mind. Continue reading

1 Comment

Filed under Nonfiction

I’m Calling to Say

by Christian Hanz Lozada

“I’m Nani’s husband. Not that Nani, the other one,
Papa’s granddaughter, no, we never met.
I’m calling to say, Papa had a stroke.
There’s nothing to do he might get better.” Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under Poetry

Today’s Young Scientists

by Warren Woessner

Are creating “tomorrow’s future”
on the covers of my collection
of 1950’s chemistry sets. Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under Poetry