“Curses are different from cusses or swears, though they often merge. A curse calls down evil on someone, circumstance, or thing: “God damn you/it!” A swear is an insult, comparing someone or thing to an animal in regard to stupidity, loveless sex, and lack of spirit or reason, or to a body . . .
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The goddess Bensaiten appeared to me in a tree. I was in the city park, eating meat on a stick, and then there was a noise like doves and when I looked up to see what was touching my head she was there. She looked down at me from among the white . . .
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Yes, I bought you a wedding dress big enough for the two of usAnd in the taxi homewe kiss a coin from your mouth to mine.—from “Of Weddings,” Spring 2018 (Vol. 59, Issue 1) We asked poet Ilya Kaminsky the same ten questions we ask our other contributors. He responded with nine of . . .
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Artist Amy Johnquest contributed the cover art and portfolio from her collection Adopted Ancestors, A Family Album (Volume 59, Issue 1, Spring 2018). Tell us about one of the first pieces you created.I’m almost sixty years old so by “first pieces” I’m figuring you’re talking about the hand painted Victorian cabinet cards like the . . .
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Outside I saw the flagstones moving like heads in a Picasso painting—black beetles for eyes. The space unpeopled yet so alive.The sky torn off but still dusted with clouds.My father died in his bed—silent and cooling like the steel kettle my mother used for tea. —from “At the Open House,” Spring 2018 . . .
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“She stole almost everything from me. First, Mom’s joy. Then, Grandma Bela’s tender attention. And, still, Julinho. She took away the best that I had, the adults’ trust and my innocence. She tore me from my nest. And this, one couldn’t forgive in a person, even if she is kind, generous, and . . .
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My son brings home a drawing from school my wife thinks lookslike four erect penises. I say they’re just very tall mushrooms.Daddy dick, mommy dick, son dick, daughter dick, insists my wife.She believes all boys see the world in terms of dicks. Half of meagrees. The bottom half. The top consents to . . .
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An Interview with Paula Bohince, winner of the 7th Annual Jules Chametzky Prize for Translation Krzysztof Rowiński: First of all, congratulations on winning the Jules Chametzky Translation Prize! Thank you for taking the time to talk about your work. Could you start by telling me about how you came to translation? Was it . . .
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The body she needs me now to cut her food and feed her,to bring the glass of sweet water, never sweeter, to her mouth,dry and shuttered. Now it unfurls itself as mouth, fish wetand bird ascendant to a higher branch, with the taste of peacheson its tongue, and for a moment she . . .
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“She empties the car onto the lawn: her gym clothes, an armful of toys, the baby seat her daughter outgrew long ago, and three bags of stuff for Goodwill. She crawls into the back, where she hasn’t been since college when her boyfriend accompanied her home for spring break. They’d snuck out . . .
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