Abuela Used to Dance Bachata
Steven Luna
“‘She’ll be ok,’ I responded, and had to convince her not to rush to New York to care for Abuela. At the time, we didn’t know what she had.”
Ill-Magination
Stephanie Gaitán
“He keeps coming back to me, as thoughts, in dreams. I chalk it up as induced by social distancing. Pain finds its way to the surface when everything is still, an easy ocean to traverse.”
The Moonlight
Priyanka Srivastava
“my mind longs
for rose butter hand cream
abandoned in the drawer.”
VOICEOVER—SIRENS’ SIBLING
Constantine Jones
“I will not
scan the surf
for you or
your feathers.”
Hoodie Season
Asya Stepnova
“Our journeys, disconnected by distance,
run like veins coursing blood
through the maps of a sick and dying world”
Views of a Longtime Federal Employee Within a Week of the Election
Linda McMullen
The opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not reflect the views of the State Department or the United States government.
it hurts more when the dog dies
Jessie Caitlin Bullard
“when death & pain are inevitable
in a film, i always find myself
looking out for the animals”
Strung Along
Surina Venkat
“She shed her clothes like snakeskin, stumbled behind the curtain to mix her tears with water.”
Unrestricted
Ann Kathryn Kelly
“To sprout wings, to join them in their escape from here to anywhere, remains a daydream.“
when the train passes Sing-Sing
Samantha Jade Remigio
I pass the fence,
a tower with a guard,
the circular barbed wire,
the countless faces that must be inside
Autumn Evenings
Kelly Esparza
With everything slowed down to such a glacial rate, Kelly Esparza sits on her porch and grows at the pace of nature.
The Squash’s Empathy
Lynsey Giardina
A strike in the vulva. The scarred tissue
pulls on those strands.
We talked each other down ledges
Nicholas Morea
“Cages come in all shapes
Isolated from others, cut them off to cope.
Climb far away, away from here.”