“Dear Bear, [True Thrill],” by Ae Hee Lee, appears in the Winter 2019 Issue of MQR. true thrill lies not in hunting but in lying under pear blossoms and watching, while quaking, how a swarm of bees make love to their queen. But there are no pear blossoms left in these ruins. No dark green gloss […]
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“Trembling on the Skin of a Droplet,” by Emily Pittinos, appears in the Winter 2019 Issue of MQR. Frost softens into steam that spills off the morning, and at the tip of each blade, a diamond quivers. I am as susceptible to beauty as I am any other pain. The pang of clouds dulling, and then
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“Searching for Elijah,” by Jai Chakrabarti, appears in the Winter 2019 Issue of MQR. Malini and her son were the last to arrive at the beach house in Malibu. Mrs. Cohen greeted them at the door, engulfing Malini in her silk décolleté caftan, and hurried them to the table. “Now that we’re all here,” Mrs. Cohen
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“Breathe,” by Ash Whitman, appears in the Winter 2019 Issue of MQR. When I think about who I am in my light brown skin, I always come back to Olvera Street. Olvera Street, wedged between Union Station and the Santa Ana Freeway, stuck in time but still fluttering with people shopping and vibrant pinks, greens, and
“Things I Never Give Myself Permission to Say,” by Chelsea Dingman, appears in the Winter 2019 Issue of MQR. It’s fall, & my mother meant to die. Gallons of wine & cartons of cigarettes
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“The Saturday Club,” by Josh Bettinger, appears in the Winter 2019 Issue of MQR. I wanted to tell you but decided against it because the cut of the weekend is real— I did not wash the car I am not on a diet I watched the finale without you but my love runs through the blackened
Clamping my hand over my left boob, which was leaking a slow and deliberate drip-drip-drip into my nursing bra and then into my marled gray t-shirt, and then onto my hand, I galloped up the basement stairs, taking two steps at a time, my body needing to feel my baby’s body. My first baby. I
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“Tuta, Tuta,” by Onyinye Ihezukwu, appears in the Winter 2019 Issue of MQR. Fanta, who is looking to buy a house, remembers something when she walks into this strange kitchen with yellow walls, low ceilings, double louver windows, and a sink deep enough to soak two days’ worth of used dishes. It’s a small memory of
“Elegy for Killmonger With My Own Pain Entering Frame,” by Cortney Lamar Charleston, appeared in the Winter 2019 Issue of MQR. Bury me in the ocean with my ancestors that jumped from the ships because they knew death was better than bondage— yeah, I heard about what you said, but nah. We both know I, the African
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Our Winter 2019 Issue is here! Featuring Essays by Jennifer Case, Caitlin Kindervatter-Clark, Sara Petersen, Andrew J. Skerritt, and Ash Whitman. Fiction by Michael Byers, Jai Chakrabarti, Beth Kissileff, Onyinye Ihezukwu, and Nancy Reisman. Poetry by Josh Bettinger, Geoffrey Brock, Cortney Lamar Charleston, Chelsea Dingman, Myronn Hardy, Andrew Hemmert, Khaled Jumaa (translated by Edward Morin and
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