Issue 20
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Donna Ogunnaike
What do You Wear?
I wear Gucci and Zannotti
Bought from lands far and exotic
A million Naira worth of weave-on
With heels that can pay the bills
I wear my outdoor designer outfits
Though my heart is filled with … -
Isme Bennie
Coming to Canada…Toronto Actually!
I got the idea for moving to Canada from a most unexpected direction. Draft dodgers, as the Vietnam War draft evaders were often called, got emigration counseling from various anti-war groups, to facilitate their safe removal …
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Susan A. Black
Garden on the Hill
There we stood, the three of us, our feet planted firmly at the entrance to the Towers of Silence at Doongerwadi in Mumbai, India. Our hope was to make our way to the viewing area where …
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Mitterand Okorie
Remembering Tanzania
On the fifth day of March, I landed Julius Nyerere International Airport Dar es Salaam via Addis Ababa. There was no tube channel to walk from aircraft into terminal, so we disembarked into a scorching sun. The atmosphere …
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Prosenjit Dey Chaudhury
A Small Town in the Time of Holidays
Though it was winter, the sun filled the grounds of the large house, its terrace and its open veranda in the rear. The rooms remained airy but mostly untouched by the livening …
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J. Paul Cooper
The Poodle and the Golfer
Bethany turned over and pulled the pillow over her head, trying to block the irritating moaning coming from the bathroom. Realizing there was no way she’d get back to sleep until after husband Harold left, …
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Sonia Saikaley
Jasmine Season on Hamra Street
(Novel excerpt)
Wadi Abu Jamil. The Jewish quarter. I had heard that name before and all the tales over coffee in the village were indeed true. Here I was standing in this very place. I …
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Irehobhude O. Iyioha
The Partners
She raked the room with her eyes quickly, a thick folder wedged under an arm. The hall was brimming, as she’d expected: men and women in austere suits and burnished shoes standing in clusters, clutching the slim stems …
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George Elliott Clarke
Sestina: Castoff
I scoffed at Portugal; I spat; sucked wine.
A mountebank, naughty-back*, of the sea,
Was I: Thus, “patriots” chipped off my face;
Chopped my visage; played Carnage; carved red ink;
Lopped my nose, tongue, ears, and right hand; … -
Diana Manole
*(Translations from Romanian by Diana Manole and Adam J. Sorkin)
Sisyphus. Black
You pile chiselled lines on top of each blow
given or received,
metaphors or quotations, learned ironies or images
that bleed English, French, German,
and ejaculate Latin.
“An …