Our Lady of the Cafeteria
Praise her hairnet, her steam-smudged
eyeliner, bronzed highlights. Praise her
tongs that hold up breaded fish as wrinkle-
nosed kids ask what is...
Winters—
we like our bodies naked blanketed like letters in an envelopemoving against each-other as though the only warmth in this worldcould come from touch as though the only...
Tahane Recalls His Escape
An elderly gray wolf escaped from his northwest Florida preserve during Hurricane Michael and was later found and returned to his...
How to Leave Without Saying Goodbye
I’ve begun
to feel, if not
hope then what
comes just after—
or before—
Let’s not call it
regret, but
this weight,
or weightlessness,
or just
plain waiting.
The ice...
When the Nights Are Long
May oboes fringe the roads you roam,
a string quartet arranged around each
intersection and traffic lights timed
to its movements, every car...
Silver Sage
En route to Montecatini-Terme, Federica asks us,
jet-lagged and bleary eyed, if we know how to spot
the olive trees
speckled along the sloping countryside.
Laura’s voice...
