Forum Magazine
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Make Your Visit
Evening signs a tremendous breath against the groaning weight of this city. Day away to rest, with its falling rays catching sliding on arms straining beneath rolled shirt sleeves, fishers back from dock leaning out windows butt-ends clenched between teeth, curling tobacco rosettes against flushed sky. Falling light dusts long heads of those impatient in…
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Mother of Pearl Rosary
My brother Herbert and sister Luisa laughing Sitting and swinging on a church gate A black robed priest, wearing a crucifix, swearing at them, to get down Confirmation day, white dresses Wearing a white carnations corsage my mother had given me No indication of oncoming storms on that sunny May day No indication of how…
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Crossing
A new tongue cuts through the canyon, where the dusty road dodges. The water dims with the red sun. We did not build the bridge, but our toes sparkled across it until we heard the creaks of someone else’s back. We did not build it, nor did we keep it from crumbling. Written by: Matt…
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Who Are These People and What are They Doing in My Living Room?
Your mother’s brother stands in the foyer, che this, che that accents of Argentina eja he says en vez de la ella de Mexicanos Tall and thinning, ruddy faced white beard groomed Su tía esta arreglando todo Couches, tables, chairs aligned in an oval lace covers crystal dusted and untouched The couple on the couch…
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Ode to the Olive Trees
Hardened after decades of adaptations deep rooted desert strains a tantalizing sun, scintillating leaves in air that steals your breath, ghosts Of children hidden to fight wild hamsin winds— Climb boughs, deflect the scratches made by rough bark, Fall over into toughened earth, catapult stones at the armed men waiting at the barbed-wire fence. Rows…
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Excerpt from The Storytaker
Scratch, scratch, scratch. Click, tap, tap, click. Pencils on paper. Fingers tapped table-tops with no particular rhythm. The days were too short and too valuable to make music while deep in thought. People scrunched up their faces, which were red and frustrated. Tongues bled under the pressure of teeth. No one spoke, no one looked…
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50 Love Letters
Cast of Characters JANA An older professional woman SISSY A young woman, probably a college student SAM A hippie looking young man MADDY A middle-aged woman Setting: The N Judah Muni train in San Francisco. Time: Present At Rise: JANA has been sitting on the train for a while holding a shoebox tied with a…
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The Body of Stone
The island had been declared “surplus federal property” for five years, the legal way of saying it had been hollowed out and deserted of soul. The government had spent years trying to keep its “worst of the worst” inside. But when we returned as the island’s rightful owners, the same government wanted to keep us…
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Escape Artist
The moon was an escape and a trap. My life is this way; frying pans to fires to frying pans. I shook a frying pan full of eggs over the burner. Rick, who lit his cigarettes from the stove, pushed me aside, leaned down, blond hair hanging over the flame. He singed a few hairs…
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Unscheduled Stops
Click. Click. Gear shift. Gear shift. Entering Seattle City Limits. It was 2:59AM. Inside a 1995 Mitsubishi Eclipse, a passenger was staring out at the steel and asphalt of I-5 glimmering with the remainder of what had been torrential rain. Often, this section was snarled with traffic, but the streets were empty, and the…
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