Anatalia Ayala had promised Bellisima Cua that the story and photos about her winning the Volzhacker Prize would appear in the newspaper’s online lifestyle...
The Demanding Gospel
For Sunil Stephens
“Luke’s Gospel is a gospel of mercy; it emphasizes Jesus’ identification with the poor and the lowly, and His willingness...
One little less of me —
a hand, an awe, a feather falling free.
one little much an eye; one too little, still more
to be.
One too little of what I am; a little too much to count on,
to look ahead for few is to drift...
Roel alighted the taxi he took from Ulaanbaatar’s train station to his guest house. He immediately felt the biting chill of the city’s subzero temperature. He took out a bonnet and a down jacket from his backpack. He put on the gloves he...
I
So in a fit of righteous anger
I washed the pots pans
plates bowls knives spoons glasses
even cleaned the kitchen sink and the drawers,
which I haven’t been able to do for a long time.
The leftover food I did not care to save
for the dog. I...
The night the war reached Cebu, Maria woke to the sound of distant explosions. It was April 1942 and she had just turned fourteen years old. Maria had known fear before—of the dark, of illness, of school exams—but this was different. The air...
Mornings do not rise
Above this leafy prison.
Time hangs midnoon
Over sharp sugarcane leaves,
Striking against the downpour
Of cruel sunrays.
All the sounds enclosing
Are the rustle of the peering enemy
And the striking of our espading
Against the earth's unflinching deadness,
Whose parchedness is under our tongue
And whose flame is...
Today is the last Friday of March, and it is stifling hot over here on the island, its jungle mountains overlooking the Pacific seaboard. A dry spell is forecast to last until October. The heat drones heavy and dull and hangs like a...