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Invisible Children
By Mariana Llanos
Invisible children fall
through the cracks of the system
like Alice in the rabbit hole.
But these children won’t find
an eat-me cake or a drink-me bottle.
They won’t wake up on the lap
of a loving sister.
They’ll open their eyes on the hand
of a monster...
What did you learn here? (Old Man House)
By Cedar Sigo
How to fall asleep easily on the beach, to dig clams, to dream a net made of nettles, a medicine of marsh tea boiled out to the open air, a memory of cedar bark coiled, resting for months in cold...
Being
By Tanaya Winder
Wake up, greet the sun, and pray.
Burn cedar, sweet grass, sage—
sacred herbs to honor the lives we’ve been given,
for we have been gifted these ways since the beginning of time.
Remember, when you step into the arena of your life,
think about...
Uncharted Territory of Grief
By Tanaya Winder
Summers meant sticking my arm out the back of a rez car.
No other windows rolled down.
Consequences of a mechanic, some stranger’s
calloused hands left us with sticky summers, sweat
dripping from our foreheads.

I waved to make-believe
friends and hungry ghosts. My arms danced
against...
A smile always heals
By Suma Subramaniam
You cannot pronounce my name.
“Soor-ya.” Not “soar.”
Surya—the sun god.
Mom always tells me that a smile heals everything.
So I try.
I sit beside you in the cafeteria
and smile.

You look down at your food
and eat your cheeseburger,
I eat the lemon rice in my...
How It Escaped Our Attention
By Heid E. Erdrich
When a whole being
births into your hands
still you see your hands
no matter how unworldly
the beauty of the child

Then the universe of words
works past cosmology
to a useful name a handle
in English unlike the Indigenous
genderless language of verbs

Moon...
Filter
By Suma Subramaniam
I come from a country so far away
that you may have visited only in your dreams.
My face does not bear the pale color of my palms.
I don’t speak your language at home.
I don’t even sound like you.
If you come to...
The Storyteller Gets Her Name
By Ari Tison
My dad used to call me Eagle Eyes. I was the one to find eagles, owls, blue jays
on a dark day. He called me so until my brother was born infant and grew to boy.

Having heard my name, as younger siblings...
This Is the Honey
By Mahogany L. Browne
There is no room on this planet for anything less than a miracle
We gather here today to revel in the rebellion of a silent tongue
Every day, we lean forward into the light of our brightest designs
& cherish...
The Line of Fire
By Mariana Llanos
our children in the line of fire
scrambling for their lives
while we dreamily polish our guns
reminders of the good old days
when we lived in the wild west
when war was a synonym of greatness
when guns didn’t fire eight hundred rounds a minute
we...
Blue Earth Banks
By Dawn Quigley
Their memory, do not let it lie fallow
On the blue earth banks
Which caught the 38 tears
As they spilled, shedding death amid jeers.
Mother absorbed them,
Heard them,
Entwined them in the River Minnesota.
Oh, Mankato. My Mankato, what have you done?
The shades of flesh...
War
By Mariana Llanos
War
War Motive
War Marvel
War Mother
War Martyr
War Mourning
War Money
War Monger
War Murder
War Monster
War Monster
War Monster
Monster
Equinox: Greta in Poland
By Kim Stafford
Because they were rich and clever, all
the ambassadors designed an echo chamber
of glass and platitudes, and took turns denying
the future. And because they were old, only
the next few years mattered, and so they pushed around
tarnished words like chess pieces in...
Phenomenal Daughter
By Nathalie Handal
She told me, Mama, I want to see the world. I told her, Go. When she returned she said: I saw barefoot women carry water from village to village, saw men limp from border to border, saw children disappear in...
Before the Rains Had Come
By Kim Stafford
The design committee for making the world
had stalled with the problem of drought.
“We have the sea over here, the desert
over there—how many roads do we need,
how many trucks, how many miles of pipe?”

At the back of the great hall stood...
Love Letter
By Nathalie Handal
I’d like to be a shrine, so I can learn from peoples’ prayers the story of hearts. I’d like to be a scarf so I can place it over my hair and understand other worlds. I’d like to be the...
Summer
By Chen Chen
You are the ice cream sandwich connoisseur of your generation.

Blessed are your floral shorteralls, your deeply pink fanny pack with travel-size lint roller just in case.

Level of splendiferous in your outfit: 200.

Types of invisible pain stemming from adolescent disasters in...
Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear
By Mosab Abu Toha
i

When you open my ear, touch it
gently.
My mother’s voice lingers somewhere inside.
Her voice is the echo that helps recover my equilibrium
when I feel dizzy during my attentiveness.

You may encounter songs in Arabic,
poems in English I recite to myself,
or a song...
The School of the Unschoolable
By Chen Chen
See the stars nightly
disobeying the night.

Watch the pattering rain
sketch an anarchist’s

map to the future, then
unpattern it away—

...
Ode to Langston
By Dawn Quigley
Langston, we too, sing Turtle Island.

We are the 574 Nations.
They want to hide us
In the past tense,
Yet we love,
And dream,
And are still here.

Today, now,
We are at the oval table
As our women lead.
Nobody can ever
Say to us,
“Natives lived, Natives ate, drank,...

p1Invisible Children

p1What did you learn here? (Old Man House)

p1Being

p1Uncharted Territory of Grief

p1A smile always heals

p1How It Escaped Our Attention

p1Filter

p1The Storyteller Gets Her Name

p1This Is the Honey

p1The Line of Fire

p1Blue Earth Banks

p1War

p1Equinox: Greta in Poland

p1Phenomenal Daughter

p1Before the Rains Had Come

p1Love Letter

p1Summer

p1Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear

p1The School of the Unschoolable

p1Ode to Langston

Invisible Children

What did you learn here? (Old Man House)

Being

Uncharted Territory of Grief

A smile always heals

How It Escaped Our Attention

Filter

The Storyteller Gets Her Name

This Is the Honey

The Line of Fire

Blue Earth Banks

War

Equinox: Greta in Poland

Phenomenal Daughter

Before the Rains Had Come

Love Letter

Summer

Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear

The School of the Unschoolable

Ode to Langston