View of the Kukupalong refugee camp near Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh. / PHOTO: Russell Watkins / UK Department of International Development
“I can be killed here in Bangladesh.
My body can earn a p…
Poetry
Rohingya students reading The Blossom in the Community Rebuilding Centre education facility in Cox’s Bazaar refugee camp, October 2018. Photo courtesy of Mayyu Ali.Translator’s note:…
Crystal Z Campbell, Friends of Friends (Six Degrees of Separation), 4x6x72 inches, vintage collection of bacteria slides circa 1940s, steel, LED strips, automotive paint, plexiglas, 2013 dow…
PHOTO: Luca Iaconelli/Unsplash Watching the Moonrise Alone Watching the moonrise alone the silent moon is like the person watching They’re alone together No one utters a single wo…
PHOTO: SkitterPhoto/Pexels considering the Upstairs Lounge Fire We tipped our sticks to the gravel like the bent spines of men groveling beneath trunks of smoke to lure the barbed larvae…
Photo: Casliber/Wikimedia CommonsWe have been away from Jam Tree Gully – now, reapproaching the name not on the gate. Working the categories, the signs, we fear the raiders? Fifteen minutes into be…
Photo: Domeckopol/Pixabay 6 His under- wear white Armpits spotless and collar neat From Monday to Monday he is like that because the drainpipe carries off the rest. 12 Before me their fe…
Photo: Bash Fish/Unsplash 1 At what time must the birds lined up in gardens, trees, and cages sing? Look to the law. 2 Let’s appoint the village madman. Chief Justice on the Court of Appeals, with…
Photo: Michael Olsen/Unsplash[Carry my metaphor] Carry my metaphor; I touched the sea before waves deceived me. Carry my dream; I saw it all without opening eyes of salt. Carry my soul; I met deat…
Photo: Kordula Vahle/Pixabay* Granaries as long and winding as the shores from which we look at the lit ocean, behind us the fertile land, rivers coming to this sea, silt behind us thousands …
Photo: Foto-Rabe/Pixabay Guide to Bharatanatyam Your smile, shredded into silver shards across panes of mirrors lining studio walls.Tuck your sari, tight. Open your eyes, wide. You learn…
In the Presence of the Simurg, by Ashur Etwebi How Can You Recognize a Blue Morning? How can you recognize a blue morning?The sea to his right, the desert to his left. What voices does the m…
Photo: Ria Alfana/Unsplash A Conversation from Far, Far Away * No linedear friendconnects here, where I am,with where you are.Isn’t it strange that I’m talking to you? The question you handed meh…
Pampas grass on the Han River. Photo: dnlspnk/Flickr Wild Geese At the northern edge of the Han RiverI saw field-cannons marchdown the snowdrifts of the valley. Wild geese flew low.I woke to see mys…
Photo: Momoko Morita/Pixabay The Earth Shall Remain I’m surethe earth shall remain,if not elsewhere,it shall remain in my bones;as a wood louse lives in the trunk of a tree,as a weevil lives in a see…
Photo: Lizzie/Unsplash Nag-aagaw-dilim Filipino idiom meaning twilight (literally, snatching darkness) Hold the flashlight and I’ll raise my hands, make these shapes for you to gu…
Shipping containers in Barcelona, Spain. Photo: Rubén Bagüés/Unsplash Merchant Ships And then they are fleetswakes,excessesof ships in the night. Among swells of mistset looseby the mouth of the abys…
Photo: Hans Benn/Pixabay Delirica II You speak (while walking) psalmsof flame,a luminous design ofchamber music.The forbidden fruit in your traintempts warriors and far-flung mariners.You speak the m…
Photo: Matt Artz * so many deadtheir eyeballs are filling this vessel gravevesselgravevesselthe earth is a slow fire re: counting the dead: I have a strategy in placeI HAVE A STRATEGY IN PLACE * l…
Photo: Momoko Morita/Pixabay Suitability The typhoon has arrived.Wind force 12.It is merciful. From this city,it has taken only one person away,the one with unkempt hair.The one who wanders all day a…
Photo: Andrew Magill/Flickr The Blind Thread If only I were the rubbing of shoulders in crowded places,the sympathetic applause,the neck that turns to change the view and move a life.If only I were t…
Still from Still Tomorrow (2016), dir. Jian Fan, produced by Youku Tudou, Inc. Crossing Half of China to Sleep with You To sleep with you or to be slept, what’s the difference if there’s any…
Photo: Public Domain Pictures/Pixabay Empty Trains The mornings departand arrive without you.Empty trains.Your spirit flashes now and thenon the hem of a sky foundering in light.Sentences fog the ste…
The cemetery as seen en route to Landes, Canappeville, Eure, France. Photo by Chantal Bizzini Author’s note: With this somewhat old-fashioned title, I actually intended to talk about the…
for Bud ¡Sí, es azul, tiene que ser azul! – José Gorostiza I can’t free myself from my boredomalways completing circlesswallowing myselflike the serpentswallows its tail.I’…