Peace Corps in My Own Words

This post is in response to the recent NY Times article on the death of Nick Castle, a volunteer serving in China at the same time I was serving in Mongolia. You can read the article in its entirety (as well as a link to other volunteer stories) here. Volunteers have been sharing their experiences […]

The Things I Never Wrote

I’m back in America, and it’s been a strange process of reintegrating back into American culture. Looking back, trying to process everything, there were many subjects I started drafts on, or contemplating writing about, but never got around to doing. There were cutesy things, like the best and worst list I had planned to compose. […]

Reverse

Swept away by unblinking eyes on triangle horizons, a sailor adrift on land where he smells no salt and tastes no depths, instead smelling cooked grass firmly planted on lands so high he hopes that one day he might catch a glimpse of the sea until he realizes his legs wobble with uncertainty once more. […]

Summer School

Colorful badges And dirty hands, Blank notebooks Tickled by Emptying pens, Transfer from One generation To the next Across an ocean, Cold and vast. Raising voices With orchestral Arcs and adagios, Tempo changes How eyes dart From one Set of hieroglyphs To the next As well as How they escape Sun-blistered lips. Benches and tables, […]

Game Day

On carpeted tables with Horses and Camels, We gather around The table to compete. First, with polished ankle Of sheep and goat, We learn how the pieces Fall on the table And how we are to Send them flying With terse jabs Into one another. Hit likes with likes, Take a bone. Hit more than […]

Men of the Bottle

Strange things happen when the light Begins to fade and illuminate the clouds In such a way that they begin to glow, Astounding colors sewing a patchwork Behind their billowing folds. Everyone is on the street because There is only one street to be had And everyone must share it: The children with their volleyballs, […]

Grapple

Your class means little When you enter The circle marked With stone benches And two roofed enclosures For voyeurs to peek. Make sure you are wearing Your hat with the black Side panels and blue Or red dome from which A pointed spire Draws upward like A stupa except that it Contains your holy relic. […]

Little Girl

She stood no higher than my knee And no closer than the opposite side Of the dismal street that we both Happened to be walking upon. I could hear her laughing behind Where my trail had been blazed, Clumsy, hurried steps quickly Approached my periphery. I turned and saw her standing With two of her […]

People Noises

I hear them imitate the dogs And they just make this sound Like a Mohican warrior, Or someone learning their vowels For the first time and are Astonished at what magic Can come from their throat. I hear them saying yes and no Without saying yes and no, A viper’s breath without the venom, Lips […]

A Night Out

Scant neon letters hang above The iron circles with no rust, Next too the plush doors With tall, vertical handles Leading towards a black descent Into a glass floor above Dying earth illuminated with Iridescent strips of cosmetic light. Everything is black and white, Except for the large panel behind Where the two men with […]