By Jennie Marima I was minding my own business reading the day’s newspaper. I had sat in the middle of the bus next to a window. My seat-mate and I shared only polite nods and the occasional comment about a pot-hole here or a persistent hawker there. Aside from that we paid little attention to each other. Across the aisle, one of the passengers was on an eating spree. If he wasn’t unwrapping fried potatoes whose smell engulfed the bus, […]
By: Jim McInturff My fingers were slippery, but I didn’t have anywhere to wipe them. My pants were already coated in the sludge and I had to climb or else I was going to get sucked underneath. I couldn’t even see the next rung but reached as far as I could until I felt the cold metal press against my fingers. I pulled as hard as I could as my muscles strained, begging for a break. My grip shook as […]
By: Mamta Gupta The Clouds welcomed the July monsoons with a thunderous sound. When the wild rain fell on the reopened earth, hope filled Laji, where wet rice had not. A farmer with money would visit her. It had been a week since a man had been under her dusty thatched roof. Sitting on her haunches in her red coarse sari, dark arms covered with a tattoo of goddess Sita, Laji cleaned the mud floors with a twig broom. Her […]
By: Amaryliss White It carries her body through the night. You watch the thing as it slithers through alleys and around corners, feet touching stone but making no sound, red-tinged eyes darting around to make sure no one is watching. But it misses you. It may be the creature of the night, but you are the ruler of the hunt. Your body is frail compared to its; soft skin against brute strength, twenty years against hundreds, grit against wit. You […]
By Jen Armstrong Loud shrills blared as the lights flashed on and off. In a moment of panic, she fell from the safety of her warm bed into the cold floor of her room with such force she would carry a bruise just above her eye for the next day or two. The unpadded carpet jarred her into reality. She was safe. Over the loud speakers, she heard, “Come on, Jess. Let’s ride!” The bright red fire engine was rolling […]
By: Ngozi Chukura It is the dead of winter. I sing: “Summertime/ And the living is easy/ Fish are jumping/ And the cotton is high/ Daddy’s rich/ And your/ Mama’s good looking So hush, little baby, don’t you cry…” I don’t know the other lyrics. I sing in the dead of winter. I sing in a resonant, sonorous voice. As the words form in my mouth, and I push them out with my hot, moist breath, little clouds […]
