Them
They are someone no one. They died and lived, struggled and knew, under the sky, our sky. But nobody sees them, and they see us and stand beneath our trees. But nobody sees them, and...
Issue: <span>November 2022</span>
View:
They are someone no one.
They died and lived,
struggled and knew,
under the sky,
our sky.
But nobody sees
them, and they
see us and stand
beneath our trees.
But nobody sees them,
and their vision and life fades,
and they stand upon our soil.
But nobody sees them,
and they no longer
see us.
And they fade
without being seen.
A silver swirl
lay upon
a silver button
left on the rock hard floor
its keeper,
an
unknown
person
A silver swirl
in my palm
like a whirlpool in the sea
I could
almost feel the cool water
A silver swirl
lay upon
a silver button
left on the hard rock floor
its keeper,
an
unknown
person.
Everybody in my family has different hair. My papa’s hair is russet, like freshly watered soil, sometimes charcoal when it gets wet. Laith’s hair is light brown like lush potatoes straight out of the garden, like the crisp part of a cookie. Layla’s hair is yellow, like pasta in the pot; it’s darker on the top and gets bleached towards the bottom.
The writer recalls two different moments when she and her grandparents connected, despite a large cultural and linguistic gap
The door to my grandparents’ house in Queens greets me, worn and grayed. Inside, the familiar setting smells faintly of fruit, maybe the Asian pears my Nainai always sends us home with.
Warm & soft
at waking
You wonder &
remember the night
before when rain
was falling gray & dark
The world is silent
with thoughts
I place my right hand
on the glass
I see joy in the sky
pink & yellow
I see rain drizzling
down the dawn
Dark, wet, scary
The world outside quivers
Raindrops above our heads
Two umbrellas black
We sit on wet earth
The world darkens
One umbrella leaves
One umbrella alone
Crickets quiet
Cicadas chirp and flee
One umbrella returns
Two umbrellas moving
Across the rainy night
A violent thunderstorm shakes Leanne to her core
Crack! Boom! Lightning and thunder raged throughout the storm. Leanne clutched onto her teddy bear as tightly as possible and looked out of the window from the couch in the living room, a blanket wrapped around her entire body, watching as the rain poured down so hard it made the pond splash into endless waves.