poetry

introduction: on the academy and it’s desires How do I write all that I want to write while reading all that I must read while simultaneously attempting to make sense of it all? How do I adequately give weight and honor to this process of reconnection in a manner that...

The hidden river rushes throughThe redwood forest, veiled, enfoldedIn its own echo, babbling as ifA half-remembered beckon, alwaysBeyond the ambling path, remainingElusive like those momentsThat have anchored root and limb,Though only to fade and change andCascade,...

We come from resilience.Our ancestors endured,treated as strangers in their own land.Desperation and courage brought us here.Hard work was not enough to put food on the table.With holes in our shoes and a broken heart,we departed the beloved land that leaves us no...

For what are we but human? Such a waste. For what are we but human? Never satisfied, always looking, always searching for more. Always “improving.” Never satisfied. Never satisfied, always changing what was already perfect. So is it any wonder? Is it any wonder that...

A FREIGHT OF BRUISED WHITE PEACHESI have this friend who lives on the frontage roadsbetween Portland and Sacramento,a bark-faced bard with the voice of the mesa jackalsand the smell of ripening fruit on his hands.He races phantoms swathedin the dirty glamors of the...

papers flurryideas hurrythe warmth of freshly pressed thoughtson eggshell leaves.a touch of the keyseuphoric releaseof fragments laced to prose.published vulnerabilitya flicker of humanity.audio poem with remixed sound bites from:Hanoi, the cityGiraffage – “Slo”Google...

1.Don’t marry the one you are most passionately in love with because the highs are high, but the lows —my mother once said to me as a matter of fact, from personal experience, because she knows best.Because that tooth-colored Rabbit of hers was always dying. Broke...

Strangers packed in love seatsdull metal bars covered in stolenlives to grip overheadstation names bear new font butchalk outlines still flickerdoors burst open for quick explorersblood scrubbed away by middaycrew mixed in with dust particlescities float by through...

I went out todayfor the first timein a while.I thought about wearingmy new black dressbut decided it might be betterfor a date nightthan a funeral.I was sure toaccessorize appropriatelywith a black mask. Rebecca Chhay is a third-year PhD student in the UCLA English...

Don’t tell me about the osprey in Louisiana.Tell me something square instead.I remember the rocky river that ran behind the house.You said, when the petals bloom at night, the fairies dance.Tell me how you knew I snuck out to that concert.Don’t talk to me of my...

Texas              Chocolatedouble       butter-sticks h e e t             c   a   k   ewith                pistachios(&   big   flats   of   salt) must      remain     rightside       up       or      elsemeet         its         makeron   our   kitchen  floor....

I don’t really know who chose who.I just stopped holding my heart’s emotions andthen, when I was about to die,you appeared!There you were, a little Tzintzúnwaiting to embrace the light of the sun,to penetrate with your body that intense prism,and here was my...