Grace Never Showed

Song said the sound was sweetbut it went down like tamarind We haven’t been savedwe’re lost in plain sightSunday’s hymn isn’t meStepfather taught us fearGrace never materializedTen unrelieved years passed She’s just an old rumorI am here, but there’sno safety and no escortjust a wilted, rotted faithWere homeless wretches, whose snared flesh did fail So…

Amended Journal

If I had a leather bound diary it would be partially fictional.I would edit some days to fit a happier brighter narrative.We would have more hugs;the yelling would be quieter. I’m in my room exceling in math,listening to hard rock by a lamp.The bodegas will have more books.Answers will be as abundant as rice.This way…

EP: Occupation by Suji Kwock Kim

The soldiers are hard at work, building a house. They hammer bodies into the earth like nails, they paint the walls with blood. Inside, the doors are locked, shut like eyes of stones. And the stairs are icy, all flights go down. There is no floor, only a roof, where ash is falling- dark snow,…

EP: The Question of Loyalty By Mitsuye Yamada

I met the deadline for alien registration once before was numbered fingerprinted and ordered not to travel without permit. But alien still they said I must foreswear allegiance to the emperor. For me that was easy I didn’t even know him but my mother who did cried out If I sign this What will be?…

A Ruby

An almost perfect gem even in the mined soil She still wears a hard smile as her friends struggle to fill the fracture A radiated joy that cant be devoured or consumed The music has not stopped, it’s just a break so I can practice Those tiny feet are still moving waiting for me to…

EP: The Fish

I caught a tremendous fish and held him beside the boat half out of water, with my hook fast in a corner of his mouth. He didn’t fight. He hadn’t fought at all. He hung a grunting weight, battered and venerable and homely. Here and there his brown skin hung in strips like ancient wallpaper,…

Heavier than iron

‘Till this day, I am still sailing without lighthouses. All this digital information at my fingers but none of it cures my seizing illness as I hurl off the bow. Every morning I rock and roll out of a pitched bed, like the scuffed baseball ready to be tossed into fans. Red stitching worn and…

Mist

You are a cool mist That burns away in the sun Stay on my window AG

On the bus

I’ll ride with locals Traveling South after work  In search of some warmth AG

Spoiled Spring

Fruit has gone sour Vinegar drops tainted it So happens now?