A Girl Called Mariah
“Where are you from?” Startled, I looked back toward the voice. I had just said goodbye to Neda and was still in the process of hanging up the phone. A blonde lady was looking at… Read More »A Girl Called Mariah
Winter 2023
Shikata ga nai
In 1934, the snow-covered Sierras peeking over a brown rampart of foothills looked close enough to touch. Our strawberry fields shimmered in the summer heat. Grape trellises shaded tongue-in-groove walls, but the little yellow house… Read More »Shikata ga nai
The Surface of Mars
It’s a world full of holes, Mick thinks—as though a child has taken the scissors to it. Real, but full of dark spots. Shit happens in such indefinite terrain. He doffs the 3-D glasses and… Read More »The Surface of Mars
The Treachery
(after Renée Cox’s “Yo Mama’s Last Supper”) Renée Cox’s “Yo Mama’s Last Supper” is a full-color five panel photographic installation that features twelve men at a banquet table with the artist herself standing, nude, in… Read More »The Treachery
I Am Hungry
March 24, 2020 “I want something to eat. I want something Mommy.” It’s only one week after the NYC public schools shuttered because of the Coronavirus. We are still in complete emergency mode with no… Read More »I Am Hungry
Five Poems
motherhood What is love if not uprooting yourself to follow impossibilitiescrossing seas and skies to hollow futures吃苦 (eat bitterness) and sun-grazed heartache.You forget your childhood but your mother-tongue clings and clenches. My grandmother used to say that… Read More »Five Poems
Legacy
Slavery. Jim Crow. School-to-Prison Pipeline. Now that our mule has plowed those forty acres, let me build a little house on one corner of it. Deep addiction, like jail, distorts time. On one hand, I… Read More »Legacy
Going Mental
My therapist says it is a disability, I checked disabled. My therapist says it is a disorder, I made a list. There are seven.My therapist says I will be pushing a shopping cart down the road one day talking to… Read More »Going Mental
Balancing Act
But what do you do when a walkaround the neighborhood meansyou might commit mass murder in mere minutes?I look down, notice a beetle hunting for a meal.A worm wriggles in desperation for the moisture of… Read More »Balancing Act
It Is Time To
Wake upWake up now It is timeto remember the visionI gave you long ago:feel merunning fast and freenose to the groundsinging loud and clearover old brittle bonesof past lives and past lovers;a howlingwild scented freedomand… Read More »It Is Time To