a journal of research & art
叠测听Stacy Mattingly
In the fall of 2015, as people fleeing Syria and elsewhere for Europe were being stopped en masse at borders, two writers鈥 collectives to which I belong 鈥 one based primarily in Sarajevo, one in Atlanta 鈥 decided to engage in a collaborative artistic response. We called it The Borders Project.
叠测听Ne膽la 膯emanovi膰
My cousin promised me a job in Austria. At the moment he told me he had managed to sort something out, I was glaring at a wall plastered with posters of nature, some of them faded and some coffeestained. The entire apartment was begrimed with the previous tenants鈥 addictions鈥攆rom caffeine to domestic violence.
Translated by听Mirza Puri膰
I untwist my headphones at the bus stop,
hysterically cussing, hands shaking
with the fear of the roar of the yellow bus
叠测听Suzanne Mozes
Ignorance and apathy have no boundaries,鈥 David said. I raised the half-empty bottle of Evan Williams. He nodded at it but refused my boyfriend鈥檚 invitation to stay for dinner, saying he would 鈥渓eave with this one last thing so y鈥檃ll can eat.鈥
By Daniela Valenta
It鈥檚 not that my father was a gambling man; after all, he never entered a casino in his life. He just had a way with cards and thought it would be a pity not to make the most of it, I guess. In the Yugoslavia of the 1970s, groups would gather in homes over a game of cards, playing as day turned slowly into night and night gave way to the next day, until one person finally left with a nice profit.
叠测听Kate Tuttle
If we were really Hansel and Gretel, we鈥檇 walk through wolf-filled woods, the sky dark, a bright moon overhead. Here, we wander amid a bright thicket of beds and dressers, desks and chairs.
Translated by Mirza Puri膰
He was walking in his neighbourhood, looking around. The streets were incredibly empty. He didn鈥檛 think it was possible not to see anyone that day. Unusually, not even his neighbour Mara had left her flat to do her morning shopping. She never missed her morning walk. Menso knew this because he preferred spying on his neighbours to watching breakfast television.
Translated by听Mirza Puri膰
The smell of apple cider vinegar pervades the room, starting from the clean, warm window panes, making its way into the perfectly tightened coverlet on the bed, the freshly brushed carpet, and one suitcase.
By Rachael Maddux
At the Pawleys Island General Store, I bought a postcard of a ghost. He stood atop a dune in a wide-brimmed hat and overcoat, one arm raised towards the ocean, his body half-disappeared into the overcast sky. Some stories held that the Gray Man was the ghost of a colonial man who had been thrown from his horse and drowned in the marsh.
Translated by听Mirza Puri膰
Tell me!
between sleeplessness and dreamlessness
are the steps too tall too tight for the feet
swollen from roaming and do the eyeballs swell
from crossing gazes eye over eye
By Melanie Jordan
Three quarters of the way through, this dude
enters. Every time, he pops up like Mephistopheles
through a clunky trapdoor, and I don鈥檛 even know
if I鈥檓 inviting him
叠测听Stacy Mattingly
We鈥檇 already shown our passports at the border鈥攊t was still Czechoslovakia-Germany then. We鈥檇 kept the lights on in our compartment, waiting for the guard. Drab uniform. Angular face. Documents, he鈥檇 said. The Cold War was basically dead. Still, I could imagine.
By Selma Asoti膰
You are
mother鈥檚 madness
stirred in a teacup.
By听Esther Lee
Geometry shapes you into compliance, quiet desperation a spiderweb spreading over a face much
like your own.
By Marina Alagi膰-Bowder
The March sunshine is clear as a bell, but there鈥檚 a bitter edge to the glassy Adriatic waters. Matt and I follow the children down to the shore to watch them dip their toes and scream, 鈥淗ladno-o-o!鈥 The initial H adds to the shivering.
Translated by Mirza Puri膰
All the pain we inflicted on our mother began with our birth. We hurt her when we were being born, and we hurt her by being born. Why people come uninvited, she never understood. She invited her first husband into her life. Me she didn’t invite.
叠测听L.S. McKee
The doctors will search
for imperfection,
will root out the cause
of tumor or freckle
with misshapen borders.
Translated by Mirza Puri膰
The three frozen fingers on her hand
were like knives in my kneecaps.
