Rukan Saif The last time I saw my father this close to God was when the doctors cut open his chest and took his heart into their palms and named it lost. So when he declines the call to prayer for...
Katie Jean Shinkle The lights of the carousel blink once twice in distress. You are on main stage dressed in all-black to blend in, to never be seen. Instead, I squirrel you away my...
Brian Woerner I put my bloody tooth on a plate, spin it for luck. If there were two, I could rattle them like dice. I think my tooth is rooting for me. Little compass, I spin it again to commune with...
Mandy Shunnarah Nobody ever asks who baked the bread, coaxed the yeast & flour with alchemy, or beckoned its rise with knuckles & patience. Nobody asks who smoked the fish, much...
Nadine Channaoui just like that thirty-five thousand gone demolished killed starved diseased one thousand for each year i have circled the sun another thousand for the circle my daughter has made...
Majida Halaweh to you who look at me with pity in your eyes: i know your love for me makes you ask how i am but it does not extend beyond that. i know you sit around lamenting my...
Gawad Elakkad Translated from the Arabic by Hazem Jamjoum & lisa minerva luxx Your fingers plunge into my palm swaying like gazelles in the forest of the mind I dream of them a...
Omar Khoury I pressed my nose upon my mother’s sleeve, the incense nestled within it, both welcoming and overwhelming. Her hair whips thin, their curls like cresting waves crashing upon themselves....
Yahia Lababidi Where were you during the apocalypse on the other side of the world? Did you pause to observe a moment of silence? Did the extermination of the other half interrupt your sleep?...
Mohammed Abu Lebda One sets traps for doves, Aged at the thresholds of emptiness, Or bakes time slowly on a flame, For patience to ripen within. Amidst war’s chaos, Love transforms into a...
