hello dear reader. I’m two days late.
week five: sculpting memory and reaching for the universal
here are a few of my favorite lines from this week:
the symbol (*) indicates a favorite
“It was as if something were eluding us / even as the night got darker / and the darkness painted the windows / a color we could almost touch.” – “At the Neighbor’s House” by Gregory Djanikian*
“& I could’ve been something more, a better / daughter, robot, river, saint, angel, martyr, / girl”, “I want us / to be like that again: moon-heavy & / gutted, / dreaming about the girls we could not keep” – “Richmond (IV)” by Lily Zhou
“my cousin has become unrecognizable / after my four year absence. His teeth, at 21, / have begun to rot. His face swollen over. / I want to shield him from his terrible life”, “You want to know what survivorhood looks like? / It’s not romantic”, “Today, I would give it all up. Trade mine / for theirs. They tell me that they are not hungry. / Happy is their toil” – “Los Angelos, Manila, Đà Nẵng” by Cathy Linh Che* [this one made me cry]
“It’s me who needs to learn / how to face grandpa’s bullet shells, / bottles, broken chairs, doors he woke us up with”, “I need to forgive / the coins he placed in my hands / to buy him vodka” – “Nocturne” by Javier Zamora*
“It’s that you’re more interested in / telling me about the dull slivers of dead saints, while / these women’s bones are glowing beneath our feet” – “The Moment I Saw a Pelican Devour” by Paige Lewis
GRASOCENG 