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WORDS

Wanting

Fugue

10 a.m. in the Publix parking lot. South Florida sun already heavy against my skin, swirling in little eddies inside elbows, collarbones, the concave of my throat. Coursing along cracked pavement and searing the shimmering hoods of cars. No choice, no resistance now. Surrender to this daydream...

Seattle GHAZAL

Zone 3

Lend me a bowl, a body, a home, a city: I’ll fill it with Seattle rain...

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Belle

Cimarron Review

Girl, I see you standing there on the dirty dance floor at Studio Seven, bass booming, party swarming around you, but you're seraphic, still...

Ready, Captain

JMWW Journal

Draw me a window that's also a door...

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dear lover
/
dear city

Witness

Dear Lover, The last Saturday I spent with you, we drank Manhattans made with bourbon I brought over. We ate thin slabs of goat gouda and Idiazabel...

Helen & Harold At the kitchen table with lobsters

The Citron Review

I snap mine in half, we all laugh, as green ooze gushes over my palms across the table. Harold gobbles sweet chunks of pink meat and microwaved peas, a quiet gusto...

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DIVORCE
SEASON

West Trade Review

It's cold. Too cold. Ugly, damp, finger eating cold. My favorite picnic table is dank and soggy. So I've chosen a different bench on the southwest edge of the park...

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how to conquer your fear

Maudlin House

Stare straight into the Marionette’s bulging, white foam-ball eyes starting immediately after Mom tucks you in, clicks your bedroom door shut...

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BUNNIES

Expat Press

I knew I was going to take Arley home with me the moment I glimpsed him hopping across the rainbow-painted crosswalk to join the Easter for Heathens egg hunt...

Katya's House

CRAFT

In Katya's house there are eight women who will never leave...

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How to die in India

Litro

We rounded a corner and sped down the road, swerving between cabs and stray dogs, picking up speed as we entered a straight stretch...

EAT ME

Queen Mob's Teahouse

At 4 a.m. in yet another hotel room, the last dregs of the party thrusting about around her, Aria watches, content...

my heart is a cheap fuck

Dig Boston & Slush Pile

So, Alice, where shall we be off to today? The train game, again? Then the train game it shall be. Pick a platform, any platform! I know: I’ll close my eyes and let you sniff it out...

Waitress contest

The Los Angeles Review

The mirror behind the stage is still streaked with handprints, smudges of sweat and body oil. The girls still climb up every few dances with spray bottles of glass cleaner and rags, wiping it up and down, back and forth, like slutty Cinderellas in their g-strings and bras...

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newark

Swill

The blare of a horn startles Nora out of her half-sleep. It’s coming from outside the window to the left of her bed, from the parking lot of the Newark Airport Best Western...

solo sojourn

Utne Reader & Passionfruit

A woman, dangling her daughter by a skinny arm, emerges barefoot from the bathroom. Her filthy feet and wet, soiled sari brush against me as she stumbles over huddled bodies and sacks, expressionless, seeking her space..

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© 2024 Shana Graham

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