Winter 2009

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Fiction

The Pearl
G. Miki Hayden – United States

He remembered, with astonishing clarity, the misty highlands and that single rope, the only access to their village of 84 souls. Over Naik's shoulder hung a sack, the object of their mission on such occasions, for his father climbed down the habal before or after him, an even heavier bag slung over his back. The two were headed to the souk — to market — with their produce.

Poetry

Stone, Paper, Scissors
Zahra Abdollah – Malaysia

Palestinian boy; Egyptian papyrus; Delivery room.

flower
Peycho Kanev – United States

the sky is blue and somehow
dumb: 

flower, flower
scream for me

 

Walking in the City: Muslima, Meet World
Saalim Mills – United States

Sheet, blanket, sheet,
she heard it all.

Treading the Fire
Ernest Williamson III – United States

maybe beauty will remain an abstract dirge
a mantra to be ruminated over like a submerged leek becoming tender in warm water ...