The PEN Ten with Dunya Mikhail

"When I came to America, I found that censorship had no home on the ground, but it was somehow in the air, implicit. Speech here is usually restricted to… More

Non-Military Statements

Non-Military Statements1Yes, I did write in my letterthat I would wait for you forever.I didn't mean exactly "forever,"I just included it in the rhyme.2No, he was not among them.There… More

Nothing Here is Enough

I need veiled eyelids, black lines, and ruined puppets to make geography. I need a sky wider than longing, and water that is not H2O to make wings. More

Pronouns

He plays a train. She plays a whistle. They move away. He plays a rope. She plays a tree. They swing. More

The Cup

She extinguished the lights except one candle and placed her finger on the cup and repeated words like an incantation: O spirit . . . If thou are present, answer Yes. And then… More

The War Works Hard

How magnificent the war is! How eager and efficient! Early in the morning it wakes up the sirens and dispatches ambulances to various places swings corpses through the air rolls stretchers to the wounded summons rain from the eyes… More