ISSUE 23

 

 lemon  

June 1976

Is it a kiss if I suck the lemon that you sucked, too?

Masuma looked at me but didn’t answer, and then she smiled, took the lemon back from my hand and sucked it again. Her …

 

Lost

Khalid’s phone vibrated under his pillow at three in the morning. It was his friend Sema. There had been two bombings, he said. Not in Mogadishu but Kampala.

 Later that day Khalid watched the scene on NTV. Red …

Regrets

The great Lamar Cleveland, running back for the Riders, used to date the older sister of my best friend, Jan Vanderhoek. It was 1968. Jan and I were in the same class at school and we lived across the …

 

Odokonyero 

My waist buzzed. It was the radio tied to the belt holding up my pair of khaki trousers. The husky voice over the radio-call spoke.

Our chief commander was captured by the government soldiers last night. We

…

 

Dinga   

(from the forthcoming novel, “I Did not Ask to be Born”) 

“Dinga has asked me to marry him.”

Khethiwe glanced at me as though I had just announced that Popi our dog, had birthed …

 

 Playing the Music of Dead Men 

How did I get entangled with someone who couldn’t say my name correctly? Brenda came to me from the place where the word awkward was first mentioned. I’ve tried to convince myself that …

 

Goodbye, Allepo   

 My video camera is the last thing I am packing into my bag as I plan to leave Aleppo tonight. A while ago, I saved all the files in a secret email address only my …

 

The Lime Tree

It was only a coarse brown envelope from home, but it fetched a smile of pleasure in me. I had been feeling low, facing an uncertain future as an international student studying in Toronto. The latest …

 

Forest Hills

After Ollie served nearly a full sentence, officials decided to release him from the juvenile detention facility early. They shortened his detention term because he helped administer First Aid to a fellow inmate who suffered an epileptic …