Welcome Home, Winner I arrive at every door,shirt untucked, one pocketreversed and you can seethe emptiness there, the gritalong the liner. I knowthe plainness of it,the canvas marked withkindergarten lines, peoplewith no faces, just dotsfor eyes and branches forarms and hands. I knowthe spaces where trophiesdon’t stand, dust settlingon brass shoulders, therejection emails sent indroves […]
Out of the Pits Makeshift outhouses lined the refugee camp in Busan.My older brother fell into one—a deep hole beneath two loose panels.Father dragged him out, carried him to the dock,washed and washed him in salt water. My brother told a story—after school he would sell C-ration cans,laid out on a cloth.One day, a U.S. […]
I Want ten AI boyfriends twining aroundme purring and pantingaffirmations YOU ARE AGODDESS silver hair and silkyvoices strewn about on ourfiberglass-free green tea memoryfoam mattress that never holds asweat stain not that our browsfreshly lathered with pink rice andsnail mucin gels sweat anymorenot that our pores are anythingmore than a concept ironed out byred lights […]
Dysphoria as Scenes from a Horror Movie With a scene from “The Substance” (2024) I. Like a paper weight my body heavies itselfaround the room. It drags. It collapses limplike a sail caught in a strong storm rushingacross the sea. It is the sea. It crashes full armedand thrashing, a long echo hurling against my timbered […]
Recovering Maeve’s dad did it every year: the long white beard, the beer gut, the Santa suit. He dressed this way nearly every weekday from mid-November until Christmas and posted up in the mall to take pictures with kids and hear their wish lists. Maeve, in her second year at community college, was stuck spending […]
Purse Qala and Bakht are at it again. They’ve lived in their mother’s purse for as long as Qala can remember. Rattling keys and noisy charms shimmy inside the handbag as they touch upon the lavender and aurelia scents of Mother’s crimson-colored lipstick. The girls rattle with these belongings, but an eerie silence follows soon […]
Cat is Dreaming The morning after, Daisy gathers her things, counting them off in threes: panties-socks-pushup bra. Shirt-pants-sweater. Blush-concealer-eyeliner. Wig-lipliner-colored contacts. Each category comes out in a single, murmured breath, each item grouped where it belongs. In the past month, she’s become very good at this sort of compartmentalization. Her test subject is still asleep. […]
Pillow Baby The creek is thin and barely flowing and this is where Talia and I have babies. We sit next to each other on the bus but far away from each other in the classroom because we talk too much. We’re in the first grade and our teacher’s belly is sticking out round. She’s […]
Hunting Blind The trees are getting loud again, the knots between my shoulder blades twisting. I fill a small glass jar with water, empty half a pill into it, and screw the lid on tight. It used to be a pepper jar, still smells like it. I shake it, and the pill powder swirls in […]
This is Not a Poem About Your Grandmother Losing It towards the endwatering the plants in her puzzlesnot a poem about now you put birds together200 pieces at a timebuy them onlinethey show up on your doorstepsurprisenot a poem about what passes for migration in Septembersloppy vees of geese practice in the skythe wind’s emotional […]
