Late December in Abidjan Late December in Abidjan
The city, awake and brooding, is its own thing. I walk along Abobo, on the road everything leads to God, even the air. I watch men spread prayer mats, each of them full of c…
Jun 7, 2022 / Poems / Romeo Oriogun
Skeletons Skeletons
Skeleton, some wonder if you are really practical keening as you do through this city ensconced in flesh, a tailored suit for bones lost plush in skin. Is it a good life within exi…
May 31, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Deborah Landau
Snow Maze Snow Maze
Everything feels cold I’d love a little warmth But I am stuck out here While they warm themselves By the fireplace or by the fire They have no bones And are completely ash I…
May 24, 2022 / Poems / Dorothea Lasky
the poet defends his right to a future and demands its immediate redistribution the poet defends his right to a future and demands its immediate redistribution
the right to be stone if you take the snow to the caribbean sea, it melts. if you destroy capital’s temperaments, we return. you can’t concoct water, only its forms. to interrupt t…
May 24, 2022 / Poems / Raquel Salas Rivera
Currency Communion Currency Communion
the first time i ever read the word God was on a piece of money We The People every time i dug in my denims i was uprooting evil * i can make any color out of concrete if yo…
May 17, 2022 / Poems / Eduardo “Echo” Martinez
I Wake in the Dark I Wake in the Dark
I wake in the dark and reach out to snug you close and your arm comes free. It falls from your body like bread. Like wet rope. And my not yet wakened mind whispers, This is what i…
May 14, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Michael Bazzett
To a Friend Returning to Aleppo To a Friend Returning to Aleppo
We opened a bottle of wine, summoned mountains overlooking ancient cities, & cities, those pits of unease, & we left your mother’s illness alone—your mother, who insists yo…
May 3, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Zeina Hashem Beck
Couplets Couplets
I became myself. I became myself. No, I always was myself. There’s no such person as myself. I wouldn’t have to turn my eye inward, I thought, if I could train my eye on him—the on…
Apr 19, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Maggie Millner
Home Movie Home Movie
Strewn across the floors their toys and things, a video cassette the dad had written “We used to have more of these” on, the kitchen in a state of high party, boxed cakes half eate…
Apr 5, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Jana Prikryl
Green Tomatoes in Fire Season Green Tomatoes in Fire Season
There is smoke in the air when I go pick them. I go despite panic, also because inside I’ll make chutney. For an hour or so, I unlatch them. It is late fall. They will not ripen. F…
Apr 5, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Tess Taylor