A Boy with Flowers in a Cage of Glass
by Omer Friedlander 
art contributed by writer 

A boy arrived wearing flowers in his hair. We kept him in a cage of glass. We had forgotten about flowers, and thought them a strange, soft kind of metal. We charged for a viewing. The lines were long, even in the rain. Boys his age threw tin cans over the top. Clang! Their mothers laughed mechanically. Other laughter and garbage accumulated, but we didn’t clean it up. It had become part of the attraction. When a can hit his lips and drew blood, he simply gazed up at the sky and let the rain wash it off.

 

The Question
Elaine Nadal
art by Marya ‘Moon’ Velazquez

It’s not just stories:
The flying cat saving the baby elephant trapped in a well
or the cocoa dust easing pain when the funny bone is hit or the pinky toe stubbed.
The tree branches give hugs; the leaves rustle a lullaby that cradles the fear of having no stardust, lightning bugs, or torn cocoons.
The melody resounds in sleep, follows in dreams, accompanies dinners,
provoking laughter while a piece of steak or chicken is being chewed–
tucked within until it’s finally released,
as it was for me that once upon a time on a night of a crescent moon:
“Tell me, Grandpa– how does an oyster give birth to a pearl?”

 

Liberty
By Rasool Yoonan
Translated from the Persian by Siavash Saadlou
art by Hanna Day-Tenerowicz

We have written poems on “liberty,”
but liberty is not what we have come to know.

Liberty is the singing of birds.
It’s the way the water and the wind treat
one another.
It’s the dancing of lights
on glasses.

Even if we were liberated,
we couldn’t go anywhere.

We’ve been forever held
by names and naan—
held by such routines.

 

—

 

Omer Friedlander was born in Jerusalem. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in over a dozen publications in Israel, France, England and the U.S., including Vestal Review, Paris Lit Up Press, Ilanot Review and The Molotov Cocktail. He is currently studying English Literature at the University of Cambridge.

Elaine Nadal is a writer and educator. A Pushcart nominee, she has been published in several journals, including Pilgrimage Magazine, Haight Ashbury Literary Journal, La Casita Grande Lounge, and Arsenic Lobster.

Rasool Yoonan is a poet, playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and translator. A celebrated poet in his home country of Iran, Yoonan was born in 1969. His debut poetry collection, Good Day My Dear, was published in 1998. Further collections include Concert in Hell, I Was a Bad Boy, Carrying the Piano Down the Stairs of an Icy Hotel, and Be Careful! Ants are Coming. Yoonan’s poetry has previously been translated to French, Armenian, and Azerbaijani.

Siavash Saadlou is a writer and translator from Iran. His fiction has appeared in Margins (Asian American Writers’ Workshop), his poetry in Saint Katherine Review, and his translations in Asymptote, Writing Disorder, and Visions International, among other journals. Saadlou holds an MFA in creative writing from Saint Mary’s College of California. He lives in Boston, Massachusetts.