“Velella: a genus of floating oceanic siphonophores widely distributed in warm seas . . . having an oblique crest which acts as a sail and often causes the animal to be drifted to coasts remote from its native habitat.” —Merriam-Webster Dictionary “It’s a very curious animal. It’s considered a colony . . .” [Professor of …
Had you lived longer, perhaps you might remember, or pretend to remember, holding my hand at that funeral on the last dayI’d see you alive, the two of us meeting in that crowded vestibuleby chance after so many years, both of us looking for spaceon the coatracks, finding none, leaving our coats on, a topcoat …
I give you a man in a waiting room, waiting, a man so plain, so very ordinary—gray, brown and brown, a little blue—that were he not alone he’d be invisible.We can see him this clearly because there’s no one else here. He’s seated in one of the too many identical chairs—chrome frame, green vinyl upholstery. …
with language from a Daily Mail articleIceland, 2012: “When the details of the missing person were issued, the woman . . . unwittingly joined the search party for herself. After a night-long operation involving around 50 people, the ‘missing woman’ eventually realized she was the source of the search and informed police.” The police chief …
I want a lover who will bring me small useless things. A keychain from Roswell. A lollipop with a scorpion in it. A magnet in the shape of a state. It turns out—I can forgive almost anything, so far. I think of words that sound the same but mean different things. Refuse (refuse), lie (lie), …
I’m turning into the parking lot of my doctor’s office and listening to Richard Pryor tell an interviewerthat when they rehearsed the flying scenes in that Superman movie, he and costar Christopher Reeve were suspended from wires in a studio with walls and a ceiling and mats on the floor, but for the actual shot,they …
so there I was cruising the trails lookingat the other men looking at me & when there wereno men to look at I was looking at Grindr as the leaves fell around me & the menpassed other men until they again passed me& each time a man passed I rearranged myselfin my shorts even when …
For years I walked around feeling holy. Bright light descended to touch my face & bright light rosefrom my face in answer. Birds communicated with me & omensexisted. When the last apple fell from the wintering apple treeI knew what it meant& I told everyone. & everyone believed me. Everyonemade soft noisesin the backs of …
This piece by Kim Hoyeonjae is translated from Chinese into English by Suphil Lee Park Translator’s Note Kim Hoyeonjae 김호연재 / 金浩然齋 (1681–1722) is a Korean poet. Her work, like others of the mid-Joseon dynasty, is composed of Chinese characters, reflective of Korea’s history of diglossia. This divide between the vernacular Korean and the Chinese …
This piece by Kim Hoyeonjae is translated from Chinese into English by Suphil Lee Park Translator’s Note Kim Hoyeonjae 김호연재 / 金浩然齋 (1681–1722) is a Korean poet. Her work, like others of the mid-Joseon dynasty, is composed of Chinese characters, reflective of Korea’s history of diglossia. This divide between the vernacular Korean and the Chinese …