Lumina

Sheila thought how far she had come, how much further she had to go, and felt like weeping, or becoming a viking of some sort, somebody who would know to wrestle a narwhal, pillage a town, deal with thisshit.
--"Welcome" by Dina Guidubaldi

We drive and drive. The dog looks out the windows and barks. I sit up front and lean the seat back. We pick up my sister's boyfriend and he gets in back with the dog and we drive some more. I guess I start takling and they just listen. I say, "You know, I can think and think on death but there isn't any knowing, you know? It's like a magic show and there's the bunny, there's the bunny, and then where'd the bunny go? Except we're the bunny and we're dead."
--"Sonhood" by Sean Bernard

Look for evidence in the way the girls' nimble hands tie ribbons with knots Kay did not teach. Hear echoes of the same in their schoolgirl croons. In the names of Boone and Crocket, Wayne and Brando--in stretched American vowels that Kay's mouth cannot form.

Know these things could mean hope--lives full of promise, full of Bundt cakes and camper vans, full of stockingless picnics with creamed chowder and root beer floats. But Kay is secure only when digging her shoulders in, only when pushing against full wind. Kay is prone to plopwing and plowing, to being tireless, and to bending her head into breakers.
--"None of Them Sing So Sweet" by Catherine Foulkrod


Rage--I defined it. I have come to know that if you are feeling war on the inside, you cannotescape it on the outside.
--"Peonies for Peace" by Hsin-ya Chow

From Lumina, Vol 9.