Myrmecomorphy
Fern stands in the church pew wearing her floral Sunday dress. Large peonies blossom across the fabric. Her soprano voice is absorbed by the congregation’s rendition of “As the Deer.” The chapel is full. A fan wafts sweat and rose oil in circles above the parishioners. Fern mindlessly rubs …
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A Tortilla
Tonight, I consummate. The ceremony itself is discreet, and the only people in the church’s kitchen are my mother and I. The anticipating groom the size of my child eye, only maize dough between my mother’s index finger and thumb. Instructed by a nod, I let cold water …
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West
Then she asked how long it would take to get there. As if we’d never made the trip before. “Just a bit longer,” I said, my eyes firmly on the road ahead. She kicked the back of my seat—not an accident, so I ignored it and turned the …
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Ride
Clumps peel from the void, and cloudy tunnels of light lengthen into one another. Gold dapples my chest. A ray dries my open mouth. I huff dust and ash. Ponds fizz in my lungs. A vein revs over my heart. Angles squirm up my sternum, puff my neck, …
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Sassafras
She was at the kitchen table watching the microwave clock leave midnight. Ron had promised he’d be back by half past eleven. Before he left, he’d said, “I’m too old to be out past my bedtime.” It wasn’t a joke. Nothing about his leaving had been a joke. Her …
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Red Mansions
The blissful resent each moment for ending. This sentiment only partly explains Karim’s decision to stick a skewered kidney through the fly of his jeans and point it at bewildered passersby along the Tonghui River. As a foreign devil, a young Black one no less, he was inured to …
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Praise Exercise
Feb 28th: Good job! In peace, an old woman whispers sweet nothings to help a flower bloom: yes my love, grow, grow, grow, slow and steady, you’re doing such a good job, I love—the train halts to a stop. We step out into dim, streetlamp sun. Mar 3rd: Good …
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Needle Exchange
The harsh overhead tube lights flickered, fading almost to darkness then sparkling back to life, as a bone-tired Vivek entered the inpatient ward. On paper, Vivek was merely a trainee physician in his first year of residency. What this meant in the real world, however, was that he was …
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Inheritance
Nadia knocks on the door for the second time and waits. She can hear shuffling footsteps, the rustling of papers, the blowing of a nose. The clients like to tidy up before Nadia arrives, make a good impression—despite this loss, I’m still holding it together!—even though she couldn’t care less …
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