Life begins, When one decides to live, After stumbling around, Day-lit paths, As a drone, In motion, Speaking only survival. That conscious choice, To wrest control, Of dwelling places, Reframe the time canvas, Start one’s heart, With a catalystic spark, Uncapping skin vessels, To the pouring of passions. The emergenceContinue Reading

The lipstick was gross. Sticky yet dry, a bitter wax in ‘Fire Engine Red.’ It was orange. I was an expert on Orange thanks to my gang on The Street. Grover and John-John did a side by side analysis of red to orange just this morning. The lipstick was orange.Continue Reading

Roger Camp is the author of three photography books including the award-winning Butterflies in Flight (Thames & Hudson, 2002) and Heat (Charta, Milano, 2008). His work has appeared in numerous journals including The New England Review, New York Quarterly, and the Vassar Review. He previously worked as a reference librarianContinue Reading

There they were, finally, with a small sense of security. Approaching happiness, even, they sometimes ventured in cautious introspection. Yes, that. Incredible, after everything that happened. They shook their head, not wishing to dwell on the past. They looked up and tracked a large bird sailing east above the trees.Continue Reading

The impending arrival of the baby is thrilling; it’s been so long without a baby in the family. The parents, the kids, the aunties and uncles, the cousins, and the grandparents are beside themselves with anticipation. When she finally comes home, born on Thanksgiving Day, the baby feels like aContinue Reading

She was sitting behind the receptionist desk, reading a book about a waitress in New York. The novel centered heavily on food, and she could feel every morsel of it on her tongue. Her stomach growled and she salivated. She hadn’t eaten a proper meal in days. Maybe it wasn’tContinue Reading

First, there was the Void. And the Great Mother swam through the sea of nothing and was cradled by the Void. And the Void sang to Her. The Mother described the Void, and all the infinite they contained. And their love was eternal because there was no time and soContinue Reading

1.-waters-We swam in the river eighteen times last summer, The waterfalls washed our exhaustion away,And the current carried us through our griefs.  We took the bridges over the river,Back and forth, up and across, high skyscraper, and arms length over.  We took buses and trains, bikes and automobiles,But every time we walkedContinue Reading

“From the Dao there comes one. From one there comes two. From two there comes three. From three there comes all things.”– Daodejing He loves routines; he has many and they share a few. A favorite of hers is watching the migratory flight of crows over downtown on their sharedContinue Reading

translated from Arabic by Essam M. Al-Jassim I was driving the other day, and the weather was getting hot, so I rolled up the window and turned on the air conditioning. Nothing unusual happened until a fly inside the car began buzzing frenetically in all directions. As if that wasContinue Reading