Departure from Saline River

by Dane Holt

‘I’m sorry. I haven’t done this before
and I’m quite nervous,’ he said,
folding himself into the suitcase.

‘Don’t worry,’ she said, ‘Take your time.
The whole town’s come to see …

what the women are doing

by Jessica Traynor

for Elaine Feeney

while we watch our movies sunk in beanbags
    the women
are talking without pause of blocked guts
   ladling food into handbags
     where it settles in …

In Pasadena

by Andy Eaton

Midnight once he stood me
  by the door of our refrigerator
   open, like a wedge of cheese in darkness,

a milk glass in my hand,
  he yelled, he …

Sneaking Your Dead Body into Mexico

by Nayelly Barrios

 

             Mexico lindo y querido, muero lejos de ti, que digan que estoy

             dormido, y que me traigan aqui.

                     —song by Jorge Negrete

 

Let the sky flip and shake …

Notes from El Valle Megamart

by Cesar L. De Leon

 

1.
Sister Juanita buys cherry flavored
Lip gloss for the girls
Apple bubble gum for the boys
The lord’s prayer
Smells like a fruit stand
Under the summer sun
Across …

Arrival

by Edward Vidaurre

 

      By throat is how we arrived

      A cradle in voice

      A passion & command

 
      By hands is how we arrived

      A touch

      Skin rising, cringing,

      Churning of a …

Flashes

by jo reyes-boitel

 

       Very soon, and in pleasant company.
                —Chinese fortune

    In a race for a tree, one Mexican soccer player almost beat the rain,
only to be met at the …

The Palm Tree Piñata

by Jose Hernandez Diaz

 

I’m smacking around a piñata shaped like a palm tree. It is southern California, mid-summer. The palm tree piñata is swinging back-and-forth beneath the bright summer sun. It is my …

Danger Music

by Aldo Amparán

 

there’s
  a woman
  screaming

 

on the radio
  a cry
  no one

 

will hear
  can you hear
  the crackle

 

of flames
  making bright her
  husband’s torso

 

somewhere

Selections from While Percival Was Falling

by Tania Langlais, translated by Jessica Cuello

Selections from While Percival Was Falling

Reading by translator Jessica Cuello. (Scroll down to view and listen to the original poem.)

 

Percival’s song
is an unruly beast
a howling story
I …

BACKPACK

by Tomasz Różycki, translated by Mira Rosenthal

Reading by translator Mira Rosenthal

 

This world, along with several other worlds,
can fit into the outside pocket of my backpack
or in a bag from Switzerland procured
in a shop …

Self-Portrait Lined by Tomas Tranströmer

by Simone Muench and Jackie K. White

I stood in a room that contained every moment—

            it contained Tranströmer, insects, and charcoal

                          …