The phrase “sacrée frangine” is so idiomatic to French that it is impossible to translate it into English with exactitude. The word “sacrée” literally translates to “sacred”, but paired with a substantive, it becomes equivalent to the expression “a hell of a”, while “frangine” (informal) means “sister”. A “sacrée frangine” is a “sacred sister” and […]
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You get a sense for your first job from a very young age, when you’re given extra work to do in third grade; as others play with a Simpsons chess set in the back, you learn cursive early alongside fifth grade math. You never learn to play chess. Instead, Juggle these three balls. Big Things […]
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Meena Alexander has a conversation with literary ghosts in her posthumous poetry collection, In Praise of Fragments. The writings and drawings in this book depict nonlinear, speculative bits about what it means to be alive, present, and home. She invites us on her exploration of the soul in her last few years of life. Many […]
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I Am The Rain I am the rain. I travel barefoot from country to country.Wind plays in my hairwith its slender, brown hand. My thin spider web dressmore gray than suffering.I am alone. Only occasionallyI play with a sick deer. I hold strings in my handsheathed with all the tears ever loosened from a pale girl’s mouth. […]
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everyday we cross over green water each step slow and heavy with stirring traffic is both ha — lting and out of breath, here a suspension nest — led in the light and still touching concrete this walk on the early hall, each socketed — morning on our eye — lids gauze light begins stubborn opening its face bit by bit wait […]
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I want to love / her accident / her teeth chipped on my name / her body quaked a fidget / tossing witchbones in the cinder / at night we sleep / we wink / we razor-slick the ceiling / board a crossfixed longing / creased with heat / at night she smears my lips […]
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Erin Kirsh is queer, Jewish writer and performer living in Vancouver. A Pushcart Prize nominee, her work has been published in The Malahat Review, EVENT, Cosmonauts Avenue, Geist, and The Molotov Cocktail, where she won their Shadow Award for poetry. Visit her at www.erinkirsh.com.
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IMAGINE I’M SMALL. IMAGINE I’M SO SMALLYOU COULD POP ME IN YOUR MOUTH & I’D SLEEP UNDER YOUR TONGUE. THINK A CROSS BETWEEN TIC-TACS AND HONEY I SHRUNK THE KIDS, BUT SEXY. TOGETHER WE’D TALK ABOUT YOUR DAY, ABOUT THE WEATHER. WE’D DREAM OF CAMPFIRES, WHETHER BAGEL BITES ARE REALLY AS GOOD AS WE REMEMBER. IN THIS STORY, I’M SMALL BECAUSE […]
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VAGABOND CITY 