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believe me

By leilani portillo when i say
the land is my
ancestor
believe me.

Twinkle, Twinkle, Morning Star

By Craig Santos Perez kaikainaliʻi wakes from her late afternoon nap
and reaches for nālani with small open hands—

count how many papuan children
still reach for their disappeared parents—

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From “understory”

By Craig Santos Perez kai cries
from teething--

how do
new parents

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poem of the week

Black Mermaids and Swimming and Red Hair and Ancestry

by: Sasa Aakil

They say, black folks can't swim and I think of my brother.

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Ode to My Older Sister, Letty, for Being the First in the Family to Go to College

by: Jose Hernandez Diaz

when you came // And substituted at my high school. All the kids giggling: is that your sister?

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After Hours at the Garment Factory

by: Amatan Noor

Alas, the sky has been seething crimson / for half a century

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prongs into the nation

by: Samah Serour Fadil

it’s funny how money changes situations / twists straight roads ahead to fit lie into truth

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alternate universe in which family is abolished

by: Tala Khanmalek

here, “we are a conspiracy” in excess / of the state, of time. the river / and its return.

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