1.
There is only one thing more complicated than living in Venezuela and that is dying in Venezuela. Caribbean bureaucracy has a predilection for making people’s lives as miserable as possible, even beyond the earthly boundaries. Lencho was well aware of this, as was everyone else in the country. But after his daughter’s death, he was naively hoping for some sort of institutional mercy. Or, truth to be told, he wasn’t.
He had learned
from a very early age not expect anything from anyone, particularly from those
in charge of signing and stamping paper. Those, under the supervision of others
who also had to sign and stamp some other papers but never without previously
obtaining a different stamp and signature from someone else above.…
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here, in a skinny creek
between dilapidated banks cleaved
and dark with clay, root-veins, your feet go numb; upwards,
his eyes grow bright in sky’s grotesque light—
your shoulders, cold, glow;
come to know his quivering palms, and then
his tongue is lapping into yours, summoning splash
and slap of sauntering stream
who teaches boys the vocabulary of body
anyway? cornea, cervix, thigh, but in truth
you too have unnamed yourself: aphasic
and dazed, goose-bumped beneath
sky unzipping, sky kissing mountaintops, (smothering
itself in their teeth,) and still
a boy’s eyes and hands down and up on you
his blood-pink lips whispering commanded
praise: stretch, spread, slip, a creek
turning surely to ice around feet
– Emma Karnes
Author’s Note: “make-out creek” seeks to address the anxieties, thrills, and confusions of girls’ early sexual experiences.…
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They said I’d be fine. They said I
was doing all right and they added that it was only going to become easier. And
that they had every reason to believe that I’d be my old, cheerful self again,
and soon at that. Yes, I said, I think you’re right to believe so. They said,
why don’t you take a course, we offer courses, in cooperation with the city
council, one of them might interest you, and then, who knows, maybe you’ll find
a new passion, or a new occupation, both are important, don’t you think? What
is life without passion, they asked, and I said, yes, yes, I might do that.
Just give it a try, they said, what’s the harm in trying? And I said, all
right.…
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LESSON ONE
“Motherhood is a scream”
In 2nd Period, three weeks before my eighteenth birthday, I vowed to never have a baby. The miracle of life is a beautiful thing, I admitted. I was a Baptist and had read Psalm 139 many times. The sanctity of human life resonated deep within me. My mother had married at 21; in my infinite wisdom, marrying young was an antiquated notion. Instead, I had planned to marry, become the model housewife, and nurture my hubby and our 2.5 children, all by the ripe age of 30.The word episiotomy was not on the textbook’s vocabulary list that morning. Still, years later, it is the one I remember memorizing.
LESSON TWO
“You can’t just go around ignoring the negative effects of the porn industry.”…
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Deep in the house
in the pit of the house
where the concrete sweats
there is a stain
and a leak so slow
it tastes of the dust
that it gleans in the rising—
It clings to us
a humid grit
that will stick
to the skin
a word lodged in
a throat
a secret shame.…
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