We have reached the edge. Holding on to the railing of the Santa Fe Bridge, I can see the Rio Bravo's dirty water running, and then I feel the electric current again. I face red painted nails I do not recognize, and I tell myself this is not me. I’m not an immigrant, not a [...]
Weak and Mild by Jennifer Ginter-Lyght
She’s nearly done, gained seven more feathers and she’s eager to run. Beyond this girl named Petite Belief. engaged with illiterate dolls in the dim closet. Feeling incomplete from oversized costumes that loiter. She clutches her red and reliable knapsack and makes her way to the heavy door. Weak and mild from surviving here too [...]
Testimony: Former Nigerian Slave by Ivy Alvarez
I was my mistress’s slave – -that way my identity flew: this breath in my chest would knock the canvas edge of the tent that shades my mistress’s skin from the thin burn of sun as my own skin browned Again, she would say, and with my hands I unstoppered the holes of pegs – [...]
Durga Pujo by Sarmista Das
Soon, it will be Durga Pujo and I will go to the Hindu Temple. My mother and I will go alone because we do not have anyone else to go with us. And because if we do not go, people will talk. I spent all last night bickering with ma, she insisted I go shopping [...]
Argentina by Isabelle Ghaneh
The mothers of the disappeared live in shadows They can’t see their stubby swollen fingers in the mirror anymore They can’t eat or drink or wash themselves Without seeing ashes sprouting out of their eyes mouths armpits They are cattle grazing on sawdust Once again, they look outside in the fields Waiting for the local [...]
Poisonous Fruit by Erin Harte
Outside there are berries and shadows and strangers. Once when Meredith walked out the door, she heard screaming and crying from the broken window above her head in the neighboring brick building. She paused, uncomfortably eavesdropping. But what was she supposed to do, she wondered. Was it really her business? Tonight, there’s no screaming, nothing [...]
Second Chance by Sandra E. McBride
Elsa blew a cloud of steam away from the cracked Christmas mug and sat it on the cluttered table. Her slippers rasped on the cold linoleum as she shuffled across the kitchen to get a jug of milk out of the refrigerator. Through the frost patterns on the window she watched the snow blowing across [...]
Tattered Clothes by Syeda Z. Hamdani
I see her on my wide-screen tv, see the story through her bloodshot eyes: “The thick needle pokes my thumb, red droplets trickle away I tear my tattered shawl and wrap the thin strip on my thumb Whack! Whack! I grab my head and see a wrinkled hand lift away the leather sandal, leaving bumps [...]
The Birth by Christine Emmert
I came out of a cauldron before the fire settled and walked across the flames into the landscape made for me. They found my marks and accepted me, arms open, into their honeyed coven. The bees swarmed me. The branches of the trees bowed to shade me. When they asked who made me I answered [...]
Asylum by Kristina Marie Darling
“All day I’ve built a lifetime and now the sun seeks to undo it” —Ann Sexton, “The Fury of Sunsets,” The Death Notebooks On Euclid Avenue there’s a beige brick building with tiny windows. The beige is painted on, and the windows are filthy and smudged from the inside. Turning off the main road, a [...]
