Sheltering with Late Husband
Annecy Báez
Many of the items in the house were gifts from my late husband to his then best friend, who is now my fiancée. Throughout the years, our used furniture had migrated here, one piece at a time--mirrors, table, chairs, rugs--but who would have known that one day I would live here.
in the story your ex tells himself
Olivia Braley
Three poems about exes, egg scrambles, and etymology.
You Weren’t Always a Hypochondriac
A. G. Maxwell
“Your late twenties have been a slow education in the frailty of the body. Before, the only time you really focused on your vessel was in quick pleasure or acute pain.”
How long has it been?
David Nemat-Nasser
I’d love a bowl of Grandma’s chicken paprikash
a plate of saffron rice
Friendship Day
Kyle Tam
We’re good at celebrating what the liberation washed ashore with the Americans, and even better at overlooking what they left behind
“¿Tu eres Gay?”
Josh Castillo
“I always steered toward the heels. Clunky two-inch brown leather heels, hidden beneath my grandmother’s bed. Maybe they made me feel powerful. I was smaller than the average kid, and to feel tall was to feel formidable.”
indifference belongs to the trees
Irene Cooper
i watched a murder of crows flap back an intruder.
then they disappeared into the trees.
birds don’t fucking play. they don’t.
Playing Pretend
Stephanie Gaitán
A daughter reflects on her father's coming out, and her own.
Sensory Silence
Dean Hernandez
Quieting the contradiction of yearning for touch during physical distance.
Four Glimpses
C. Adán Cabrera
That was my first time, you whisper to the dustless dashboard. You lick your lips and savor the caffeine. Well, you’re my first Mexican, he grins, knowing full well your family comes from El Salvador.
A Perfect Day for Bananacake
Jennifer Stitt
What really exists?
Not things made or unmade. Only
things in-the-making. Only things un-
caged. Silently springing
