BEGINNER’S ENGLISH FOR REFUGEES by Sebastian H. Paramo I walk around the makeshift classroom where the heat has us sweating for words. The adults repeat phrases like a chorus, Each word is said as if it could change their lives. They get out their notebooks & sharpened pencils while the fan overhead twirls a phrase … [Read more…]
BIRTHDAY by Katharine Johnsen Boca Raton, March 1995 Clasping my hand around my grandfather’s, I pulled him from a doze to rehearse; he was my Daddy Warbucks and I was turning seven, obsessed with Annie. When he wanted to know how we should celebrate, I said, a party with my … [Read more…]
MY OBITUARIES by Katharine Johnsen I started reading the obituaries after he came home from the hospital, checked them like he checked his stocks, like they mattered as much as his test results. I was preparing to navigate my own goodbye. I read about the fresh deaths; I read the archives posted as part of … [Read more…]
TASTING GARLIC IN SPANISH by Jeff Schiff Head the vendor replies for the sheathed whole where its dangling beard once studied mud cabeza de ajo Cabeza so you will begin to suspect its vegetal wisdom And in that papery head teeth For though she demurs your lover demands them or one day will dientes teeth … [Read more…]
AZIMUTHS by Philip Kobylarz Summer, a suitable garden. With/without reasons, leaving. In the bulb of her hand, a match stick. Beyond the circling hills, a road back to nowhere. With the requisite signs. Six % downgrade, dangerous curves. We rest to intake stars, stop. Parcels belying their addresses, the dance a tassel. Many routes to … [Read more…]