The Best Stuff I Read Last Week
“The sourball of every revolution: after the revolution, who’s going to pick up the garbage on Monday morning?”
— Mierle Laderman Ukeles / Manifesto for Maintenance Art
“Everything I need to know grows wings / and lands on my skin. / A thousand tiny plovers / cover the skies, and shine / like moonlight on us both…”
— Farnaz Fatemi / “Heretic”
“Out of sight, I’m merely an annoyance,
one slim, obstinate wrinkle in night’s
deepening trance.”
— Rita Dove / “Postlude”
“We lie on the beach. Gray waves advance, retreat. The blue wind, salt scrub, scours my skin. Sharks troll for toddlers. Patrol planes hum below the cloudy scrim.”
— Pia Täavila-Borsheim / “My Friend, Her Grandson”
“I don’t know the names of the women in my family / past my great grandmother. How will I call upon them / when it’s time? Will I call them Mary or Venus / or Yemaya?”
— Diannely Antigua / “We Never Stop Talking About Our Mothers”
“I promise touch. I promise my voice. I promise a willingness to dream.
I promise your face hewn into lost history
— Tala Khanmalek / “Louise”
“Solitary bloom / of wild rocambole / day of departure nears.”
— Yuko Fujikawa / “Solitary bloom”
What I’m Listening To:
“El mundo de las luciérnagas
ha invadido mis recuerdos
Y un corazón diminuto
va brotándome en los dedos”
(“The world of fireflies
Has invaded my memories
And a tiny heart
Is sprouting in my fingers”)
— Tarta Relena & Manuel Oltra / “Las Alamedas”
thee istsfor manity reader 