Celebrate with us five years of Asterisms where we feature works published online. Congratulations to the following poets featured in our anniversary print issue (Un) bound.
“Lost the Root ” by Isabel Acevedo
“Spirit, grow like flamboyán, a blaze
blooming red. Everything red.
Black and brown, mancha
de plátano – I can’t see it now.
Come back to me, Isla”
“La Llorona at the Saloon” by Jose Araguz
“There are no more dances there.
When she clocks in,
the batwings sound
as if they are ready to drop.
She lays the silver down
and watches faces
melt off the backs of spoons.”
“What is the Difference Between Globalization and Neoliberalism?” by Amy Sara Caroll
“The question isn’t as innocent as it sounds. If all of us are imprecated in the cat-and-mouse game of cause and effect, who wouldn’t apprehend the pair—at the bare minimum—as kissing cousins to the twin towers?”
“Two Poems: It’s Been 3 Months Since the Last Drop of Rain/Turning” by Rina Garcia Chua
“the seagulls circle the empty
parking lot, thinking gravel
can melt into liquid
a thin squirrel carries a dry
nut across the field, its body
crouching in greed”
“Tal’-s-Go Gal’-Quo-Gi Di-Ded’-Qua-S-Do-Di Tsa-La-Gi Di-Go-Whe- Li / Beginning Cherokee” by Qwo-Li Driskill
“I crawl through a field of
twisted bodies to find them
I do everything Beginning Cherokee
tells me
Train my tongue
to lie still
Keep teeth tight
against lips
Listen to instruction tapes
Study flash cards
How can I greet my ancestors in a language they don’t understand”
“What We Know about Men” by Isobel O’Hare
Isobel O’Hare’s uses statements from the male celebrities who harassed and assaulted countless of women in these six erasure poems.
“2 Poems: All I Want is You & Dear Home” by Leslieann Hobayan
“Perhaps you have been right here all along, deep in my belly: a fire.”
“2 Poems” by Rosamond S. King
“Careful we have to be/: Opening the door/, Getting our wallets/, Playing in a park/, switching lanes/ Can be fatal”
“Once More, With Feelings” by Mahwash Shoaib
“let us give thanks this eid
to the erasing of raw aches of the body
the nightly chase of ellipsis to essence
the testing of boundaries of nerves and compassion”
“The World We Choose, The World We Love” by Michelle Yasmine Vallardes
“Aspen branches rustle
in the wind, remind
us of a heaven
we stopped believing.
But our burning world
in your thin arms
is the same one we choose
to practice love in.”
