Excerpts
Who will die tonight?
The Shadow
Joshua Leon felt his body tense in his uniform as the plane jangled to the drop point, and the rest of his unit held onto their seats. The flurry of the aircraft carrier was behind them, and now they were concentrating for the mission, the blue waters of the Caribbean turning over below them. There were …
Afraid to Pray
Dear God I’m afraid if I pray for my daughter’s safety you’ll blithelyallow her to get raped or abducted or crash on a highwayon a perfect summer day. Forget I mentioned my daughter. What daughter? I remember how Anne Frank believed in the goodness of mankind.I wonder how she felt the moment her diary was …
Maricón
In memory of Emile Griffith (1938-2013) and Benny ‘‘Kid’’ Peret (1937–1962) And a man who has found prowess in boxing,grant him favor and joy. – Pindar I "Whoever controls the breathing in the ringcontrols the fight," my father says. Smell of sweat,Vaseline and bleach, sting of ammonia. "The art of self-defense is crucial." The gym …
Migration Narrative
What wilts becomesthe world for the weary.They can’t help but wonder at the lovelyshadow touch of anotherwar’s rubbled song. If crossing freely into firecan churn the blood’shollow music, then surely the orphan canask at dusk for waterand get more than spit.
Madness Is Remembering
First, he reminded you of Eros in the cave. In Paris, you saw Canova’s sculpture Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss shortly before you met him, and when you invited him into your bed, you saw his naked form and remembered the statue, and named him Love: delicate, yet masculine, waif-like but sure as the white …
Top Ten Signs of Climate Change
1. My father tells a story of a severe winter that lingered through March: The earth shook; my cousin was swept away by a tidal wave. That winter, my father dug up a frozen sewer main by hand to unthaw it. Fishermen had a good salmon catch that year. 2. I inhale too many mosquitoes …
If Bees Are Few: A Hive of Bee Poems edited by James Lenfestey, University of Minnesota Press
If Bees Are Few is an anthology spanning 2,500 years "from Sappho to Sherman Alexie," as its cover copy suggests. Edited by James Lenfestey, it is as eclectic in its selection as it is vast in its time frame. The book takes its title from Emily Dickinson, who was herself fascinated with bees, and comes …
Morgan: A Lyric
Come with me if you want to live, the great-chested Schwarzenegger commands in Terminator 2. I’ve never seen it, I confess, clicking to another station. No, too busy rereading The Iliad, Morgan says. At the Met, Leonardo’s drawings: faces where things erupt, the flesh deformed in bubbling lumps; a man on whose chin a growth …