Katherine Soniat – Orphan Joy
Orphan Joy Send Kuan Yin home to me, her words of compassion pressed between those ancient covers. Mail her to the wrought-iron number nine nailed to my cottage where geese live all winter. Know no more urgent words are written than these. You are silent. Wait still spilt in blue on my open palm. And Kuan Yin walked the tracks with […]
Beth Copeland – Explication
Explication Unaware of his loss until a warm day when he wears shorts above a black titanium leg, I see him step onto a field of poppies or stumble upon a bomb outside of Basra, a limb blasted to bits. I try not to look, but my eye returns to the prosthesis beneath his desk […]
Sabrina Fedel – Zero
Zero She found my father hunched in a squat, hand outstretched, wet can of c-rations waiting to be licked clean both lost to the Philippines Clinging, like drops of rain or sweat, when the clap of intelligent life broke the canopy open, vines cracking into ribbon pieces floating and falling she hid burrowing a fox […]
Matilda Berke – Échappé
Échappé During the Cultural Revolution, Madame Mao took control of the National Ballet of China. Government officials scoured the nation for children who showed physical promise, plucking them from their homes and placing them in state-sanctioned training camps. The dream where the moon filters through onto the dust & I find myself in my mother’s […]
Annette C. Boehm – Operator
Operator The front line’s a 45 minute drive from my place. I grab Starbucks on the way. I take over mid-air, fly three eight hour shifts, lose track of my body in Vegas, my eyes on gray scale dirt, my eyes the drone’s. 5,000 feet is best. The image so clear I can tell the […]
