at the town’s public cemetery, I lightthree candles to celebrate his life. Their flames are tiny suns that flickeragainst the dusk. His name on the wooden cross is fading. When was my last visit here?I look into the horizon unfurling like...

The virus made everyone cower inside their houses—windows taped shut as if air and light were poisonous and doors locked tightly as if to shut out more than just a robber but rather the entire world. Every day people...

On her windowsillMother keeps a small garden.A patch of many shapes and colors.Old twigs coaxing unborn leaves.Subversive thorns caring for vari-colored blooms.Plants and essences that cureToothaches and loneliness.Here, she wields the power.She drinks deep from her own gospel.

Grace The many tremors comeunannounced, but we knowthey are coming. The old earthgives way and soft papayasare on the ground. Lemongrassfills the air and everywhere there isa steely edge to the way peoplecall our names. The groundboth fact and faceless,save...

“What the—?” Sky’s hand stalled inside the bag, fingers grazing the lining like it might bite.  The leather was a tired brown, the kind that had once been pretty in store lighting and then surrendered to real life—edges blunted, corners...

Red, orange and brownYour lunch, your dinnerYou don’t have a choiceFor it’s your only fare now It’s now on sale in storesBuy now; it’s buy one, take oneRight now, it fits with riceAnd with salt plus soy sauce, too! Eat it...

Mamay, here you are soaking the soft riceAnd wrapping them in the leaves tender, darkenedDarkened by the tiniest flame that you whispered to.The bundles are dreams of shapes on top of each other.Listen, the water is graying and catching...

Armed with a rifle and overflowing with a warrior’s confidence, my classmate's brother marched into the woods, excited about his unforgettable first solo hunt. After all, they say you never forget your first. Deep in the forest, alone and...

Not the red ball of yarn I threw at her,a lizard’s tail,the bright threads of a woolen rag,a fish head, some greens that felloff the kitchen table,a piece of cracked shell,maybe an egg,perhaps a stray spider.  Resource and inventionwould lead...

Lander left our community church on the first Sunday of the year. Three years ago, I did the same thing. After college, I wanted to work in the city and felt the smallness of our community. That time, Lander...

When all is done, Mama shows mehow to knot the final stitch, carefulnot to tug too tightly at the thread.The doctor must have performedthe same art on my birthing mother. Replace the surgical lightwith afternoon sun and the ob-gynremembers how...

End with everything. Keep nothing. Then own it all again.Find a bad man on a good day. Lose a worse man,then reclaim five friends fleeing him. Forsake to lose as ifyour death discounted it, that your death depends on...